Go Clean my room
by nayru9572
Summary: "Thank you, Master. Amakusa Shirou Tokisada shall devote his all to cleaning your room!" Or: the misadventures and romance of a certain on-cleaning-duty Ruler. Updates monthly!
1. Chapter 1: New Duties

**The entire idea of this fic is based on Amakusa's interlude. Minor spoiler for said interlude: after temporarily betraying his Master in an attempt to get his hands on a grail, being beaten and then subsequently forgiven, Amakusa insists on receiving punishment. The Master then asks him to clean their room, which he promises to do with gusto. **

**There will be some Amakusa/Gudako, though it'll be rather minor before it develops into any actual romance. Also, since it's Gudako there'll also be plenty of mention of other pairings involving her. **

**And for the record, the title and Amakusa's quote in the description are from a translation of the Japanese interlude and not the NA version, since I just liked the sound of those better.**

* * *

Shirou Amakusa Tokisada – one of Chaldea's rare Ruler-class Servants – was walking through the hallways of Chaldea, carrying a bucket with soap water and a mop in each hand, a dust rag slung over his shoulder.

If anyone had seen him like that, they would've certainly raised an eyebrow at this odd behavior for a Servant… _if_ they saw him, that is.  
Amakusa had been taking special care to start gathering these supplies right before the next rayshift, when all of Chaldea was preparing and the movements of a Servant not in the current team weren't being checked. Not to mention that the supply closet was unlocked because someone had to grab some cooling fluid for one of the machines, meaning he didn't even have to borrow the key to it, either. Well, with his Noble Phantasm he could easily use Magecraft to unlock it, but acting so secretively in the base of his Master would have left a bad taste in his mouth, so he preferred to avoid doing that.  
(Amakusa decided not to acknowledge the irony of that thought, considering he'd quite literally attempted to betray that exact same Master not a week before, which was how ended up doing this in the first place.)

Though it wasn't like Amakusa was doing anything wrong: this wa_s_ following a direct order from said Master, after all. And he wasn't embarrassed over having to clean either. Rather than any humans' reaction, this secrecy was out of concern for how some of the _Servants_ would react. In particular a certain Japanese Berserker with a history of 'disliking' those too… 'close' to her Master. And while this order wasn't given out of any particular closeness or affection towards the Ruler, Amakusa could imagine Kiyohime not reacting well to him receiving special attention, even if it was only to clean.  
Thinking it over, that it was a household chore might bother her _more _because she wanted to do all the housework herself. Something about wanting to prove she was the perfect wife for her 'husband'… Well, due to their Master's easy-to-like personality Kiyohime wasn't the only Servant who'd consider such behavior an issue, but Amakusa rather not dwell on just how dangerous this seemingly simple chore would actually be if anyone found out.

And so it was that he ended up delaying the punishment he'd asked for after the fiasco of him trying to obtain the corrupted grail until now, when there would be a minimum amount of people and Servants roaming the halls.

Having been in Chaldea for a while now, Amakusa easily found his way through the many hallways – despite the added difficulty of the rather roundabout route he was following – and reached his Master's room. He'd informed Gudako that he'd be cleaning it today, so she said she'd leave it unlocked (not that she needed to fear humans stealing something from a person who commanded the loyalty of so many Servants and said Servants wouldn't be stopped by an ordinary lock either, but it was the thought that mattered). And indeed, when the young(?) Ruler approached, the doors slid open automatically.

He stepped into the room – and immediately concluded he would easily be done before the Rayshift team returns. It was a minor Singularity this time that wouldn't take a day, but all he had to do was dust and arrange some things, make the bed, take out the small trash bin that was half-filled and perhaps mop the floor. Except for some disorganization on the desk it seemed like his Master was not that messy a person, and Amakusa suspected that if everyone actually had the time to clean their own rooms between all this saving the world they were doing, this room wouldn't even need anything beyond perhaps some mopping.  
Well, he had heard that until shortly before his arrival the other Servant that always looked up when the name 'Shirou' was spoken used to clean rooms, but due to the increase in Servants he'd been too busy with his job in Chaldea's cafeteria to do so anymore. In particular since a new batch of Artorias arrived. Goodness, King Arthur (_all_ of them, even the younger version) could _eat_.

Amakusa placed the bucket and mop on the ground for now, deciding to keep the mopping for last. First, he started with arranging the stuff on the desk while simultaneously dusting it, carefully checking before he threw anything trash-looking into the waste bin. Without Gudako having mentioned what could and couldn't be thrown away beforehand, he decided to only trash some loose wrappings from the occasional caramel and snack, and an empty bottle of some soft drink. The amount wasn't so much that he suspected his Master to risk health issues, though he did note she must have a bit of a sweet tooth.  
While cleaning the desk he also took care to neatly place any loose pens in the pen holder and made a neat pile of the loose books and papers strewn about. He didn't want to open any drawers without his Master's permission, so that was about all he could do there.

Done with cleaning the desk, he moved onto the next target: the bed. Gudako did have a nightstand, but all that was on it were a lamp and book. There was no dust present, so he just ignored that in favor of making the bed. He took the liberty of gathering a clean bedsheet, cover and pillow case from the laundry room earlier. Smoothly exchanging them with the used ones, he placed the old laundry in the basket with crumpled-up clothes he'd only just noticed standing in the corner. Another basket he'd have to empty later on, he made a note to himself.  
He lied on his stomach to check under the bed to ensure there was nothing that fell underneath it, and apart from some dust bunnies he didn't see anything. He'd have liked to clean those up as well, but unfortunately the vacuum cleaner – such a useful invention – was out of commission due to lacking bags, and since cleaning wasn't that high on Chaldea's current priority list no one has tried to acquire any from one of the more modern Singularities. Perhaps King Gilgamesh might have some in his Gate of Babylon (honestly the more random junk the various Gilgameshes pulled out of that, the less it seemed like a treasury), but child Gil couldn't remember if he had any, Caster Gilgamesh had felt insulted by the request, and not even Gudako had dared to ask the adult Archer Gilgamesh.  
Amakusa decides to just consider himself lucky that the rest of the room's floor was clean enough that he could still mop it and left it at that. In hindsight, maybe he should've brought a broom instead of the vacuum…

He was just about to push himself up when a piece of paper stuck on the underside of the bed caught his eye. He hadn't noticed it before because it was so neatly stuck to it – definitely done on purpose – but since he couldn't imagine Gudako sticking something there he pried it off to hold it into the light for a closer look.  
Now able to see it properly, he could tell it was a talisman. In his friendship with Fuuma Kotarou the ninja had taught him about the various kinds of talismans, and so Amakusa recognized it as a talisman for sharing information. Particularly, if one was holding the partner talisman and focused on it, they could perceive what was going on through it. Basically, a tool for spying.  
Amakusa could've believed that it was merely to ensure the Master's safety if it had been placed on a wall or something, but considering it stuck to such a hard-to-find location he could only conclude that spying was exactly its owner's intention. If someone wanted to spy on Chaldea's interests this would've been placed in the control room, so this would only have been placed by someone with a personal interest. And among the Servants – because really, only a Servant would use an actual talisman – there were plenty with interest in their Master. Other than this Amakusa could only conclude that it was not the work of someone used to handling talismans – like for example Kotarou – since the writing was a bit too sloppy, as if the person was trying to write while looking at an example.  
He decided that for the moment, placing the talisman on the desk for Gudako to find with a note explaining what he knew about it would have to do, and Amakusa moved on to his next task.

Soon enough any remaining dusting and then the mopping was done, and Amakusa took a moment to appreciate his work. He hoped his Master would enjoy his effort, though he still felt this was rather minor punishment. Well, she initially didn't intend to give him any punishment at all, so he doubted she'd agree to giving more.

Everything was in order and he should leave… but even for someone like Amakusa, there was one particular curiosity in the room that he couldn't help but wonder about.  
Namely, a certain drawer. A locked drawer. A locked drawer, but the lock was so enormous that one could club another person out with it. Unlike one usually does for precious belongings, Gudako wasn't even trying to hide that she wanted to keep people out of this particular drawer. It was purely protection oriented, disregarding any aesthetics and convenience, and considering the slight amount of prana Amakusa could sense in it, it had several layers of enchantments, too. He suspected that even a Servant would have trouble getting past that if they lacked the proper skills to deal with these kinds of wards.  
… Did Gudako perhaps get one of the Caster servants to do this? No, enchantments like these must've been the results of cooperation. Honestly, this level would be good enough to secure some of Chaldea's sensitive, absolutely-no-rampaging-servants-allowed-near-them systems, and she instead stuck it onto a lock on a drawer. The entire room would give before the lock did!  
The Ruler was not one for sticking his nose into others' private business, but he had to admit that he'd be asking Master about what could be in this fortified drawer next time he caught her alone (because he had no intention of signing his own death warrant by publicly admitting he was alone in Master's room: some Servants really were _that_ possessive).

Still, other than this lasting mystery he was content with his work for the day and gathered the cleaning tools before heading out. The storage room was still unlocked by the time he dropped everything off there, and so he walked away with none the wiser.

On his way back to his own humble room, he ran into Mash.

"Oh, Mister Amakusa! Hello," The Demi-Servant politely greeted him with a small bow, which he returned. Honestly, he'd prefer she treated him as casually as Gudako did, but considered outright asking it of her a bit much.

"Good day, Miss Kyrielight. Since you were with Gudako, I assume the Singularity's already been dealt with?"

"Yes! We cleared it without much resistance, and I think Senpai's already returning to her room. Did you perhaps want to speak with her?"

"No, I was just curious. I'm glad to hear it went well."

"I see…" Instead of excusing herself like expected, Mash remained standing in front of Amakusa, looking at his face. But rather than his eyes, her gaze seemed focused on something else.

"Miss Kyrielight? Is there something on my face?"

"Oh, no! There's nothing wrong. I was just wondering if something good has happened to you."

"Hm… nothing recent that I can recall. Why do you ask?"

"I just saw that relaxed smile on your face and assumed there was a reason. My apologies for making assumptions."

"No, it's fine. Now that I think of it, I did just handle a particular task quite well, so perhaps I'm simply content with that."

"I understand, that must be it. Well then, if you'll excuse me…" With another polite bow Mash left him, presumably retiring to her room herself.

As Amakusa regarded the girl's back disappearing around a corner, he moved his hand upward to his mouth. Certainly, when he relaxed his facial muscles, the corners of his mouth did seem to rise a little without him meaning to. But despite what he'd said to Mash, he doubted cleaning Master's room was the cause. Though when he thought about it, maybe it was after all? Thinking back on it he did find the peaceful work of tidying everything up quite relaxing compared to the hectic life of combat he'd grown used to as a Servant.  
All in all, he actually found the experience quite enjoyable.

… Maybe he should ask Master if he could go clean her room on a regular basis?


	2. Chapter 2: Once More With Clarity

**While once again this chapter's little more than a description of Amakusa cleaning the room, from the next chapter on the focus will shift more to anything else going on or being thought – sometimes during cleaning.**

* * *

While she'd given him a questioning look, Gudako had no issue with Amakusa making the cleaning of her room a regular task of his. Quite the opposite, really: she said his work last time had been amazing, and she particularly appreciated his finding of the talisman. The Servant in question had been admonished, though Gudako didn't let slip which Servant had placed it and Amakusa had no intention of prying further into her private matters.  
(The only thing he thought was that she truly was an amazing Master for being able to recognize which Servant had placed it with just the talisman.)

Well, he hadn't pried about _much_ that is. There was one thing he'd asked her about, after all.

Once more Amakusa found himself in Gudako's room with cleaning utensils in hand. While he'd be making the bed, since he was here just last week he didn't deem it necessary to change the sheets just yet. She'd barely even slept in with all those rayshifts lately, after all.  
As he got started on cleaning the desk, he couldn't help but throw a glance at the heavily locked drawer in passing. Gudako had told him without shame or hesitation that it was her _underwear_ drawer. Apparently Kiyohime – and occasionally a few other servants - had a tendency to take 'souvenirs' from there, as Anderson had spotted her walking around with a pair _on her head_. The very same day she heard of this, Gudako had Da Vinci-chan start making the lock, and ever since it appeared Kiyohime hadn't tried breaking it open.  
Amakusa had to admit that he was most certainly not jealous of the amount of attention his Master received. While it would no doubt feel flattering at times, it was a bit too much when one had to be concerned over the privacy of their unmentionables, of all things.

Refocusing his attention on the desk, Amakusa noted that it was easier to do this type of work when one could actually put items away instead of placing them into neat piles: Gudako had told him in which drawers he could put the loose stuff on her desk. By the time he was done, all that was left on the desk were the pens neatly placed into a holder, an empty notebook and an unfilled report for a recent Rayshift Gudako would be filling in the next time she was in her room.

Like last time Amakusa now moved onto the bedding, fluffing the pillow and straightening the blanket. He glanced underneath the bed as well, but this time there really was nothing more than dust bunnies. Speaking of which…  
After dusting the remaining furniture, Amakusa grabbed the tools he didn't have with him last time: a broom and a matching dust pan. He quickly got to work sweeping up all the dust and dirt on the floor, making sure not to miss the dust bunnies underneath the bed. Soon enough all the dust was gathered and Amakusa was pouring it all into the trash bag he'd brought.

There was not enough in the laundry basket to justify throwing it into the washing machine just yet, so mopping the floor would be his last task for the day.  
He'd brought the bucket and mop just in case, but as it turned out – despite Japanese customs – Gudako wasn't in the habit of removing her boots before entering her room, so any dirt and other stuff she stepped into during rayshifts just got brought right into her room. Well, he could understand her being too exhausted after clearing a singularity to bother with kicking her boots off before faceplanting on the bed, so he wouldn't be bringing this up as an issue. Besides, the mud stains weren't that hard to remove.

After making sure there was not a speck of dust left in the room, Amakusa gathered up his tools and headed back to the utility closet. There was slightly more of a challenge putting things back this time – a staff member was busy filling a bucket of soap water for some mopping of his own – but a Servant didn't need to be an Assassin to be able to sneak past an ordinary human unnoticed.

And so it was that Amakusa survived another day of cleaning the unusually adored last Master of Chaldea's room, noting that the satisfaction of doing such simple chores well really was its own reward – or at least it was for those who were used to having to clean nothing but blood from their blades after a battle.  
Perhaps he'd ask the other Shirou – the archer whom one could mistake for having taken up permanent residence in the kitchens after the addition of yet _another_ Altria – to teach him sometime, so he could improve his work.


	3. Chapter 3: Another Viewpoint

**So as this chapter proves, this story won't be **_**entirely**_** from Amakusa's point of view. It'll still be for the most part, however, and I don't think anyone but him and Gudako will ever be the 'viewpoint' of a chapter.**

* * *

Gudako briefly paused as she opened the door to her room and the smell of soap entered her nose. She really should've expected this – he'd told her he'd come clean again today – but it still took her by surprise. The young woman glanced around, and sure enough her room was noticeably cleaner than when she left it. She really wondered about how ridiculous it was to have a Servant – and especially one with such a special class like a Ruler – do such base tasks as cleaning a room, but he did it well and seemed to enjoy it, so she just let him be.  
Perhaps housework was simply a talent for all men named Shirou? Although given the similarities in their looks, she wouldn't have been surprised if the two turned out to be alternate versions of one person. Sure, Amakusa had _said_ him looking like someone else she knew was a coincidence, but was it really?

Shaking the silly conspiracy thoughts out of her mind, Gudako set about starting her usual coming-home ritual: the first step being checking for any traces of stalker intrusions. Luckily this time there was no note from Amakusa on the desk, and the lock on her drawer seemed to still be securely in place.  
Of course, this didn't mean that no Servant had broken into her room and just didn't leave any trace, but by this point she was already glad if no one took or _left_ any souvenirs. Especially the latter was a scenario she wanted to avoid, after multiple burnt attempts at making desserts or weird souvenirs she couldn't place the origin of being left on her desk and stinking up the room, not to mention the challenge of disposing of them without any of said Servants finding out: they might all have more life experience than her, but Gudako was not the type of girl to break anyone's hearts through rejecting their good intentions, no matter how much she disliked the result of said intentions.

With step one completed, Gudako now moved onto the next step: collapsing from exhaustion (which was only second because no matter how tired she was, Gudako just couldn't rest easy unless she personally made sure Kiyohime wouldn't tour the halls of Chaldea with her underwear again).  
She had enough presence of mind to take off her gore-covered jacket (it had been one of _those _singularities) and toss it into the laundry basket across the room, but after that no longer cared and collapsed face-first into the blankets of her bed. She felt slightly guilty towards Amakusa for ruining his careful cleaning work - as she was well aware of how her soiled boots were just barely hanging above the floor, likely dripping more dirt onto it than she'd already left by walking up to her bed in the first place - but sheer exhaustion beat guilt.

Since the Servants running the cafeteria – most of the actual staff there had evacuated way back when the control room was destroyed, so the remaining staff was grateful to have folks who actually knew how to cook – knew she tended to get hungry after returning, they'd most likely started cooking upon hearing her work today was done. At the very least it'd take fifteen minutes, so she figured it'd be fine if she got a little shut-eye first…

Gudako was startled awake by someone gently rocking her left shoulder, a young male voice saying: "Master, I've been told to tell you the food's ready." The hand let go as she groggily pushed herself from her stomach onto her back, and from there into a sitting position, rubbing an eye as she managed to suppress a yawn.

"Hiya, Amakusa. How come Mashu's not here?" It was a pretty understandable question, since Mash was usually the one to check on Gudako – except in case of an event, but anything goes when it comes to those.

"Ah, Miss Mash is apparently still sleeping, so Boudica asked me to come get you," Amakusa's gentle smile as he answered always managed to life Gudako's by sheer virtue of how motherly it looked, but that was likely because it looked so similar to Emiya's gentle smile (in anything other related to Amakusa Gudako maintained her stance of cautious optimism, as while she liked the guy she didn't believe for a second he wasn't plotting _something_ at any random moment in time).  
It made sense: Mash had been running overtime protecting Gudako from stray (or sometimes not-so-stray) enemy fire.

"Alright, thanks. Also, sorry for making the room dirty already: I really appreciate it, but after this mission I just…"

"It's fine. I don't mind coming back to clean again soon, anyways." Gudako nodded at Amakusa's assurance, and that was that.

Amakusa went to wait outside while Gudako changed into a clean uniform, and while she was changing her waking mind drowsily picked at the conversation she'd just had.  
The Ruler had said that Boudica had asked him because he happened to be close by, but she wondered what would've happened if he hadn't been. Would one of the cafeteria Servants have come to get her themselves? If so, would they have just decided, or tried to draw lots? And if they'd have asked someone else, would they have gone for a human or another Servant?  
All the Servants working in the cafeteria so far had been the nurturing and kind sort, who were completely understanding when it came to how troubled Gudako sometimes felt with the affection of the more… aggressively in love Servants. They would've definitely tried to give the job to someone who wouldn't do anything to her while she slept.  
Emiya in particular seemed to sympathize with her being popular – especially among the female Servants – and was always giving advice or helping her with excuses to deal with some of them. His advice on how to try and make Kiyohime less jealous when she paid attention to others had been very useful, for example. Before his advice, practically the only girl she could safely talk to wash Mash (because even Kiyohime understood that the bond between Gudako and Mash was different from the love she was seeking).  
This did make her wonder how it was possible for any one man to have that much experience in calming down overly jealous women, but she decided not to question him as a show of gratitude.

Realizing with a start that she'd already finished closing her white jacket and was now just standing in the middle of her room, Gudako noted that she must've been really tired to be so out of it, and vowed to sleep in the following morning, since there weren't any rayshifts planned then anyways.  
Exiting her room she found Amakusa still there, and they chatted on the way to the cafeteria.


	4. Chapter 4: Public Knowledge

**For the record, it's not that I hate Kiyohime: I'm not a fan, but I don't mind her either. But when you say 'yandere Servant' she's the first one that comes to mind, and I just had to do something like this. Why?  
Because I find the idea of Amakusa being chased around Chaldea by Berserkers funny.**

**Anyways, with that out of the way: enjoy!**

* * *

"Ah, Mister Amakusa." The youthful-looking Ruler turned around to see Mash coming out of a room.

"Oh, good morning Miss Kyrielight."

"Ah, yes, good morning," Mash said, the corners of her mouth moving up into a light smile. But even so, Amakusa noticed that at the same time, there was a light furrow between her brows. In addition, she seemed like she wanted to say something, but was hesitating.

"Is there something you want to ask me?" The Ruler decided to give the girl a break by being the first to break the silence that was growing more awkward every second.

"U-um, no, it's not that I want something from you…" The girl trailed off, before gathering her courage once more as she took a deep breath, "… but I have to admit I was wondering about something." Amakusa gave a light smile to encourage her to speak further.

"… Mister Amakusa, Senpai's room is nearby."

"Master's room? Ah, now that you mention it, you're right. I must've passed by it without really thinking about it earlier." The frown on Mash's face was even clearer now, as he'd apparently not said what she wanted to hear.

"… Was it really a coincidence?"

"…? Of course, why wouldn't it be?"

"… Um, I'm sorry to say, but I've been seeing you around Senpai's room a lot lately, usually around the times Senpai isn't present." Ah. Amakusa should've known Mash would be the first to figure out about his cleaning duties. Both he and Gudako knew that Mash wouldn't throw a fit over something like that, but both also knew that the moment word got out, every Servant in Chaldea would hear about this before the day was up. Mash was without a doubt one of the nicest people in Chaldea, but also the worst at keeping a lie, however much she disliked being left out of the loop because of it. Not even Mash's anger after the Christmas event could change Gudako's thoughts on that.  
But in this particular case Amakusa being near his Master's room really _was_ a coincidence, and it was slightly troubling him that Mash seemed to suspect him of _something_. He wasn't sure what, exactly, but it clearly wasn't cleaning going by the disapproving frown on her forehead that was getting deeper every second.

"Ah, I see. I suppose that is true. Lately I've been helping Master out with something, but this time really is a coincidence."

"… Really." Where in the world had Mash learned to glare like this? Amakusa would've imagined a priest looking at a lost little lamb if he hadn't been a priest himself, even if that was a cover in another timeline.

"Miss Mash, might I ask what you're suspecting me of? Because it seems like you have something in mind."

Realizing she was probably being extremely rude, Mash briefly glanced away and collected herself before sighing: "… I'm sorry, I know you're a good person, but the way you've been lurking around Senpai's room lately… I can't help but remember that the last time a Servant did that it was Kiyohime, and…" Amakusa let the accusation "you're acting like Kiyohime" crash against his ears, and for a moment his mind went blank as he imagined the stalker dragon girl. Did… did he actually act like her? Like Kiyohime, the Servant who broke into her Master's room to steal her underwear?

"…"

"… Mister Amakusa?" Perhaps Mash had noticed the ever-present smile on Amakusa's face had taken on a stiff quality, or how his stance looked frozen. Maybe she was imagining things, but was he not breathing…?

Amakusa never thought the day would come that he would be compared to one of Chaldea's top ten problematic Servants. While the exact positions tended to shift regularly, with there being a one-time problematic wonder at the top of the list every time an event rolled around, Kiyohime was always between the positions of five and ten, right below Mephistopheles (despite her behavior potentially causing Gudako the most stress, she was fairly low on the list due to – most of the time – not wishing her Master harm).  
It was… honestly, Amakusa couldn't recall the last time he'd felt so deeply _ashamed_ of himself. He adored his kind-hearted Master of course – they all did – but he'd never imagined he'd risk turning out like Kiyohime! Even if the situation wasn't quite what Mash feared, it was still the truth that his behavior reminded her of the Berserker, and that was…  
Amakusa likened the feeling currently racing through him to a crisis of faith, and he felt the immediate urge to go to Chaldea's small church and pray to the Lord for guidance and forgiveness. Ah, to think he'd sunk so low… He was actually starting to feel a little nauseous at the thought.

"Mister Amakusa? Mister Amakusa!?" The Ruler was literally shaken out of his spiraling thoughts by Mash, who had grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him back and forth with a worried expression on her face. Amakusa blinked.

"Ah, Mash? My apologies, I must have zoned out," the Ruler said, and Mash let out a relieved sigh as she let go of his shoulders and took a step back.

"Are you sure you're alright? You were starting to turn pale and you'd stopped breathing…"

"I did? My apologies, I was just… taken aback, that's all." Amakusa actually wanted to say, "shaken to my core", but he didn't want to give Mash cause to feel guilty.

"I see. Um, I'm sorry for saying you were acting like Kiyohime: it was an exaggeration and I didn't think it'd shock you so much…"

"No, no, if you say my behavior was suspicious it must have been. I'll reflect on it right away." Well, at the very least seeing how shocked he was convinced Mash that the Ruler wasn't actually planning something devious for her Master – in particular not something related to her underwear, because in his stupor he'd muttered: "not like that underwear thief" with the deadest of looks in his eyes. Honestly, for a moment there she'd feared she'd actually given him a heart attack!

"Well then, with that…" Amakusa said goodbye to Mash and immediately took off in the direction of the church… with the most unsteady gait Mash had ever seen on a Servant, bar some who were drunk.

"Mister Amakusa…?" The Ruler didn't seem to hear her, continuing with his wobbling steps, barely avoiding crashing into a wall as he turned a corner.

Mash felt quite bad about doing that to him, and wondered how she'd break to Senpai that she'd accidentally broken one of her Rulers.  
And honestly, seeing him so shocked was outright unnerving. The last time she'd seen him get any kind of emotional was way back when he tried to get his hands on a corrupted grail, and in particular when Senpai had answered him that she'd always stop him if he went after one.  
But even compared to that time, this level of shock was on an entirely different level, and it worried her deeply. Certainly, Amakusa's ability to remain calm in any situation was somewhat worrisome to her – while in itself a useful trait, the fact that he didn't even blink when trying to betray them all was rather understandably less good – but to see the same person turning pale in shock was even worse.

* * *

As Shirou Amakusa Tokisada stumbled into the church, he was greeted by the welcoming faces of Jeanne d'Arc and Saint Martha.  
Both saints politely greeted him… and after only a nod with a weak smile, Amakusa wobbled past them.

"… Amakusa?" Jeanne was genuinely confused: not in all her time as a Servant of Chaldea had she ever seen Amakusa like this, all pale and shaking and unsteady. Saint Martha knew him a little bit less because she hadn't taken up preaching at Edmond like them as a regular activity – though she did when she happened to run into him in the halls – nor did she happen to be summoned at the same time as either Ruler, but even to her it was obvious that the not-quite-a-saint's behavior was extremely unusual for him.  
Deciding to support him before he collapsed, the women each took one of his arms and gently guided him over to one of the benches, seating him.

To be frank: he looked like a dead man walking. His usually tanned skin had taken on an unhealthy pallor, he was shaking, his body seemed to lack warmth and his eyes… By God, his eyes. They just looked… _broken_, as if someone had said something to shake him to the very core of his being. And yet, despite his dire state, his ever-present smile was still stuck on his face. Though it definitely looked less welcoming than usual when combined with his otherwise ghastly state.  
Jeanne would've said he was having a crisis of faith had he not come to the church despite his condition, undoubtedly to pray. She felt a bit bad for interrupting his attempt, but she wasn't sure he could even say a proper prayer right now.

"Amakusa? What's wrong?" Martha tried to get through to the man, but he just kept staring blankly ahead of him. Since speaking didn't get through to him, she tapped him on the shoulder instead. Amakusa turned his haunted gaze onto the Rider, and she couldn't quite suppress the shiver going through her when she met those eyes.

"Ah, my apologies, but I was lost in thought. Were you saying something?" Neither of the two Saints could decide whether they were weirded out by his ability to talk in his normal tone of voice despite clearly being in inner turmoil, or _impressed_.

"Amakusa, what in the world did you do before getting here?" Amakusa just stared blankly at Martha for a few moments after her question, and the two women were starting to fear he'd returned to his stupor again until he spoke up.

"Ah, I was… I was holding a conversation with Miss Kyrielight, that's all…"

"Mash? Did _Mash_ say something that distressed you so much?" Jeanne asked in disbelief. While the Shielder could be surprisingly stubborn and strict at times, in general she tended to be among the most gentle people in Chaldea. She couldn't imagine the girl saying anything to affect Amakusa so much.

"Ah, no, Miss Mash didn't say anything wrong. If anything, she pointed out my wrongs…" As he trailed off Amakusa fell into his stupor once more – and for real this time – making it clear to the saints that regardless of how difficult to believe it might be, Mash had indeed said something to reduce Amakusa to this state.  
Jeanne looked at Martha, and the Rider nodded. With that she rushed out of the church to track down Mash and ask what exactly she said, while Jeanne went about trying to coax Amakusa out of his shocked state.

Not too much later Martha returned with Saint Georgios in tow, whom she'd apparently run into on the way and had explained the situation to. She explained what Mash had told her, and they tried to ignore the odd sound Amakusa made when the words "reminded her of Kiyohime" passed Martha's lips. It sounded strangely much like his soul escaping his body.  
After her explanation Jeanne now fully understood why exactly Amakusa took it so hard.  
While it might initially seem silly to be so distressed over a simple comparison, the fact that Mash had likened him to Kiyohime of all people… Jeanne couldn't guess whether her fellow Ruler must have been more distressed over his behavior being viewed as that suspicious, or over the fact that he'd been likened to Chaldea's second Servant to have been given the dubious honor of the title 'Underwear Thief'. (The first holder of that title was Blackbeard, whose subsequent beating by angry female Servants had discouraged anyone else from aiming for the same spot.)  
Indeed, by now rumors of Kiyohime snatching the Last Master's underwear and wearing it proudly atop her head as if it was the most splendid of crowns had spread to most of Chaldea (to Gudako's great embarrassment. Seriously, the girl refused to come out of her room for two days straight when she was asked to confirm the rumor).

Everyone present knew that Amakusa wasn't the type to do such things, but the shock of basically being accused must've still been tremendous. Amakusa's gaze had turned even more distant, and Jeanne, Martha and Georgios set about trying to restore the young(?) man to his usual self.  
Considering he had three genuine saints (mostly figuratively) praying for his lost soul, it should come as no surprise that Amakusa started recovering from his state of utter shock after only an hour.

* * *

Taking a deep breath, Amakusa gave his fellow Christians a grateful smile. He was still rather pale and couldn't quite stop the slight shaking of his hands, but it was far less serious than before, and life had returned to his eyes.  
He emptied the last bit of tea from the cup he'd been holding (he'd been so out of it that he couldn't remember who'd even given him tea in the first place) before placing it back on its saucer and then next to him on the bench.

"Still, I'm surprised you kept cleaning Master's room so often. Did you decide to try and emulate the other Shirou here?" Martha asked, still enjoying her own tea.  
Sometime during what was essentially a therapy session with three doctors and one patient Amakusa mentioned that what Mash had interpreted as suspicious behavior was actually just him cleaning Gudako's room. He wasn't particularly worried about saying this, as the only ones who regularly visited this church were the four of them (including Ruler Martha) and both versions of Vlad III, along with a few of Chaldea's staff who happened to be religious. And Amakusa knew that none of those people were the type to gossip.

"I simply find it pleasant to be able to focus my attention on such a peaceful chore, especially considering the many battles we've been in lately."

"Indeed, the Singularities have been getting more and more dangerous every time. I pray Master can continue to face these dangers as strongly as she has been." Georgios, who was seated on Amakusa's other side, had also finished his tea, though he held onto the saucer and cup instead of placing them somewhere.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about that. Master's a surprisingly strong girl. As long as we all support her as we do now, I'm certain she'll make it through." Jeanne was the only one standing out of the four, still drinking from her own cup. The other three Servants nodded in agreement.

They continued chatting amiably like that for a while, and had anyone spotted them they would've wondered if there was a club for (almost) saints being created. Well, in actuality someone _did_ spot them as she entered the church, but her mind was far too occupied with homicide to concern herself with this. As far as she was concerned, even if such a club did exist the only reason it'd matter to her would be because she was on her way to deprive them of a member…

Because unbeknownst to the group of saints (with one not-quite-official saint), shortly after Martha had questioned her Mash happened to run into Kojirou. Knowing he was friends with Amakusa, the Demi-Servant had asked him if he knew what the Ruler had been up to. While the Assassin knew nothing about him spending a lot of time near Master's room, he had spotted Amakusa with cleaning utensils a couple of times, the dates matching when Mash had spotted him near Gudako's room. The girl recalled how a while back Gudako had ordered Amakusa to clean her room, a task that he had accepted with gusto.  
Both put their clues together and correctly deduced that Amakusa was thus simply continuing with the room-cleaning, undoubtedly with Gudako's own blessing. Mash immediately felt embarrassed for jumping to conclusions like she had, and was worried about how that must have affected Amakusa. Martha had mentioned him being in shock. Kojirou assured her that the Ruler wasn't the type to hold a grudge against her, and that she'd just have to apologize to him next she saw him.

While neither of them saw anything wrong with someone regularly cleaning their Master's room – Gudako was too busy to do it herself, after all – a Servant who did see the potential for chaos in this bit of info happened to overhear it. And as (bad) luck would have it, this particular Servant was the one who consistently beat Kiyohime in the unofficial ranking of Chaldea's top ten problematic Servants: Mephistopheles. Once the two other (Demi-)Servants had left the area he came out of hiding, and immediately set about spreading the news to all of Chaldea.

Jeanne – being the only one facing the entrance of the church – caught sight of the arriving Servant first (although the other three were starting to notice the killing intent intruding inside the holy place). Her expression turning grim, she summoned her flag to her hand.

Almost immediately after, a chilling voice resounded through the church, freezing everyone who heard it on the spot: "Oh my, Amakusa, I hear you've been getting close to Master lately…?"

Amakusa knew that looking behind him would be bad. He'd acknowledge the girl and her outpouring killing intent. He'd be much, much happier if he just pretended he didn't hear her. But at the same time he knew that he couldn't just play ignorant: he would have to face down this threat to his very existence – because there was not a doubt in his mind that this girl's aim was his life – sooner or later.  
And so Amakusa turned around and greeted Berserker Kiyohime, but not before wincing when he saw the bloodlust in her eyes.

"Well? Don't you have anything to say in your defense?" The girl asked as she tapped her fan against her chin. But despite her words, the look in her eyes made it clear she had no intention of talking things over.

"…" It took all of Amakusa's determination to not avert his gaze, instead staring back into her eyes with determination. He could feel a trickle of sweat run down his back, his body tense and ready to spring into action. The same could be said of the Saints besides him, though knowing that they were not the actual target of all this bloodlust they could sense might have meant they were just a little bit less intimidated.  
When he would later look back on what transpired in that church, Amakusa could only think himself fortunate that Lancer Kiyohime had been in the rayshift team that day and was out clearing a minor singularity.

Kiyohime jumped into action, breathing out a great plume of fire.  
At the same time Jeanne activated Luminosite Eternelle, protecting both her fellow Servants and the church itself from the worst of the raging flames.  
But she couldn't keep it up forever, and Amakusa knew that the moment her noble phantasm stopped the church – with all of its wooden benches and decorations – would turn into a sea of flames. As such, he decided that as she was after him, it was his duty to lure Kiyohime away from this holy place and those who had worked so hard to cheer him up.

Jumping over the back of the bench, Amakusa ran to the side of the room to just outside the range of the cone of fire before rushing forward, running past Kiyohime and out of the church. The Berserker for her part immediately halted her attack in favor of turning around and chasing after him.  
His fellow Christians would've liked to help Amakusa further, but they were busy putting out the fire on the wooden benches Jeanne hadn't been able to protect.

* * *

All in all, despite Kiyohime's Berserker class not being affected by Ruler's usual defenses, the chase hadn't been going that bad for Amakusa at first.  
Certainly, Kiyohime's attacks hurt, but with his stun and rather large HP pool he was confident he could keep her from killing him long enough for Gudako to return and calm the Berserker. Even when consumed by jealousy, Kiyohime always tried to listen to her 'husband', after all. It was already about time for Gudako to return, and given she'd poured all the embers she had into the first Ruler she'd managed to summon and had even grailed him completely, he was certain he'd be able to hold out against Kiyohime who had 'just' reached max ascension.  
… Actually, that he'd received more attention like that was probably part of the reason Kiyohime resented him so much. Well, nothing he could do about that now.

Sadly enough for Amakusa, after first realizing he wasn't just going to let himself get killed Kiyohime got angrier.  
In his defense, how was Amakusa supposed to know she could turn into a giant snake? He definitely hadn't seen that coming, and Kiyohime capitalized on his surprise.

Even with his stomach impaled by one of Kiyohime's fangs, the Ruler was still hopeful that he could turn the situation around.

And then Nightingale arrived. Even Kiyohime didn't want to face her (Nightingale was strangely intolerant of some of her fellow Berserkers' madness, and seeing her try to 'cure' a mental condition that wasn't even possible to remove was one of the scariest sights any of the Servants had ever seen), instead opting to spit Amakusa out and slithering away.  
Nightingale paid her no mind, her gaze glued to the rather heavily wounded Amakusa. Considering the woman mentioned 'amputation' in regards to the rather serious wound _in the middle of his torso_, it's no surprise that the Ruler opted to run for the hills as well.

Getting chased around by Kiyohime was nothing in comparison to Nightingale's pursuit, as she was both more persistent and more _violent_, despite claiming to want to help him heal. Amakusa had to dodge numerous bullets, and could only hope no one would mind the holes in many of the walls too much.  
His salvation finally came in running past the simulation room, which Beowulf and Li Shuwen were just walking out of after a heavy sparring session.  
Upon seeing the 'healing' Berserker, Li Shuwen decided to opt out, finding no shame in running from the madwoman. She let him go, too, as his wounds were less serious.  
But luckily for Amakusa, Beowulf was quite banged up – not surprising considering he was a Berserker and had just tried to tank most of the Lancer's attacks. He was in an even worse state than the Ruler, something which Nightingale didn't fail to notice. Beowulf also happened to be one of the very few Servants who didn't try to run when Nightingale wanted to treat him, instead considering it a great fight while he was on the brink of death every time. His policy was simple: if she could beat him so badly he could no longer move, she had _earned_ the right to treat him.

And so it was that Amakusa could safely make his escape as a battle between the two Berserkers broke out behind him.  
Not looking back even once, the Ruler said a quick prayer for whoever had to pay for the repairs to the walls and floor… and the ceiling too, probably.

* * *

Finally, _finally _it seemed Amakusa had shaken off all his pursuers. He placed his hand on a wall for support, trying to catch his breath after what felt like crossing through the entirety of Chaldea in far too little time, even for a Servant.  
He was especially glad to know that Nightingale would have her hands full on Beowulf right now, for while the wounds and scorch marks Kiyohime dealt him would heal on their own, he wasn't too confident about being able to recover from what Nightingale would do to him…

"Amakusa? Are you alright?!" The Ruler couldn't help but feel a smile form on his lips as he recognized the female voice calling out for him. Between receiving massive mental damage, being hunted around by two Berserkers in immediate succession and the looming threat of being held responsible for the damage his fleeing had indirectly caused, anyone would be hard-pressed to call this day a good – or even halfway decent – one. But if he could enjoy her company for a while, maybe it wasn't so bad a day after all.

Amakusa turned around, warmly greeting his Master who'd just returned from the singularity.

"Master, I'm glad to see you return safely. How did the singularity go?" Gudako spared his greeting no mind, immediately rushing over to check his wounds.

"Is now really the time for this?! You're bleeding out all over the floor: you need to get medical attention!" As Gudako was wearing the Chaldea uniform she could apply some first aid, but still ended up guiding Amakusa towards the church, where Martha would be able to heal him.  
(Nightingale wasn't an option as healer for obvious reasons, and Irisviel was both easy and difficult to track down. If not on-duty in the clinic or helping on rayshift duty, she was almost always busy chasing after a certain Assassin. And while she wasn't too hard to notice, the very man she was chasing after happened to be terribly difficult to track down…)

Amakusa would've been lying if he didn't appreciate his Master fussing over him… though the moment was kind of soured by _both_ versions of Kiyohime tracking them down and not looking too kindly upon how close the two were (even though Gudako was just trying to support him as the blood loss from the wound Berserker Kiyohime dealt him was making his legs shaky).

Well, let's just say it'd be another three hours and a gauntlet of battles with all possessive Servants in Chaldea – with no one but his terrified Master and eventually Mash to support him – before Amakusa could finally get that healing.

* * *

**Whoo boy, this was a long chapter. But still, I'm glad with how it turned out, and I hope that everyone enjoyed it! I just hope I didn't end up making Amakusa (or anyone else for that matter) a bit OOC. If I did – or if you noticed any other mistakes – please be sure to let me know! **


	5. Chapter 5: Shelter from an Avenger

**In the very likely case that you're confused by the mention of Valentine's Day: I write these chapters **_**long**_** before I actually get around to posting. This is to both create a comfortable backlog for times where I lack inspiration, and so I can check, re-check, double- and then triple-check the chapters, often tweaking them a little with rewrites, rewording and correcting mistakes. **

**So yeah. After this chapter I'll be posting a bunch of Valentine-related chapters. By the time I get to the chapters about current events we'll likely be half a year further already.  
(So sorry, but the Shimosa stuff is gonna be a while. On a positive note: the chapter I'm writing for that is large, so it'll probably get the rereading and tweaking needed by the time I get around to posting it!)**

**Anyways, without further ado: please enjoy!**

* * *

It was a surprisingly peaceful day in Chaldea, and Gudako was taking the chance to rest in her room.  
Mash had noted that it was a nice change of pace so shortly after the battle at the Temple of Time, but both Gudako and Da Vinci were certain it was just the calm before the storm that was the next event: Valentine's day.

While not at all opposed to the day itself – Gudako rather liked exchanging chocolates with her school friends in the past – after coming to Chaldea the event had taken a sharp degree up in seriousness. Not just because many of the feelings directed towards her were now more romantic in nature, but also because of the risk of extreme death being hidden amongst the chocolate she was to receive from certain female Servants. Particularly Elizabeth. Gudako had heard some of the horror stories from Servants who'd once been summoned together with her – she never quite got when and where from their vague explanations, and what the place had to do with the moon – and she wondered why the self-proclaimed idol had to be so bad at cooking. Her singing was bad enough, so couldn't she at least have received a little bit of talent in a not-torture-related area?  
(It didn't help that that the small robot – made in a blue-haired person Gudako didn't know's likeness – had perished a few weeks ago taste-testing some riceballs Hassan of Serenity had made.)

Trying to avert her mind from her stomach's impending doom, Gudako sat up from her bed and walked towards her desk, intending to write some more in the journal of notable events she was keeping. While usually she only recorded her adventures through singularities and some events in them so she could reminiscence when she read this thing after their battles were truly over, she felt like writing an entry in case she didn't manage to survive the 14th of September…

But just as she pulled back her chair, Chaldea's last Master heard some kind of commotion out in the hallway. Had the chaotic event preparations already started? No, even for the particularly eager Servants it was too early.

Opening the door of her room, Gudako was greeted by what she could only describe as a roar of fury. It sounded like the originator was still a ways off, but nearing her location. She just considered locking herself in her room until whoever – because this could only be a Servant – it was had passed, but then Amakusa rounded the corner, running at full speed.  
And for some reason – despite obviously running away from whoever was angry with him – he slowed down to greet her.

"Ah, Master. I'm sorry, did this commotion disturb you?"

"No, it didn't, really: I'm just wondering what's going on…"

"About that… It seems that I've angered Dantes a little bit, so I'm currently running for my life…" Amakusa's chuckle was surprisingly light-hearted, though Gudako imagined it was laced with some amount of dread.

"Edmond? What in the world did you do?"

"I can tell you about that later. But Master, might I make a request?"

"Oh, do you perhaps want to hide out in my room for a bit? Of course!" Gudako slightly stepped aside, gesturing for Amakusa to enter. The Ruler looked a bit surprised, but wasn't about to complain and quickly hurried inside. Gudako followed, locking the door behind her.

Amakusa moved towards the bathroom just in case the Avenger did bust in to look for him, while Gudako stood to listen at her door.  
Not a minute had passed before the ruckus on the other side of her door increased in volume so much Gudako backed away a little, just in case. Though strangely enough the sound reminded her more of a stampede than one man running. Gudako thought she could hear Edmond's voice going 'raaaaaagh' or the like, but it was somewhat drowned out by the running sounds.  
The sounds passed in a matter of seconds, though it took a few more minutes before it completely faded away.

"I think he's gone," she stated.

"It would seem so. But just to be certain, would it be alright if I hide out here for a little while longer?"

Gudako looked back at the Ruler who was leaving the bathroom, and gave a small grin: "Sure, sure, make yourself at home."

She walked over to her bed and sat down, legs hanging a little above the ground, the tips of her toes barely missing scraping the tiles. Amakusa looked at her bed for a moment, as if briefly debating whether to sit down next to her or not, before walking over to her desk and pulling out the chair, sitting down on that instead.

"Thank you very much, Master. It could've turned out rather ugly for me if he'd caught me…"

"Actually, what _did_ you do to get him that mad in the first place?"

"To be entirely honest, I'm not too sure. I was talking to him when he just seemed to get tired of listening, deciding that violence would be the fastest way to stop me. In a way that's true, but still…"

"Ah, he must've gotten tired of listening to your preaching: he's got little patience for that." Amakusa nodded, though he wasn't convinced that was entirely the reason. Certainly, on the surface it seemed that Amakusa's talking was what had caused the Avenger to get all worked up. But he also got the impression that Edmond had been giving him colder looks ever since that commotion about him cleaning Master's room.  
Amakusa had figured the Avenger had some feelings for their Master – be they romantic or paternal he couldn't quite tell – but he hadn't pegged Edmond as the jealous type. Well, he'd calm down soon enough when the Avenger realized there really was nothing between the Master and Ruler.

Gudako's question answered, there was silence in the room. It wasn't an uncomfortable one, but Amakusa did feel himself growing slightly restless, simply sitting in his Masters' room. If he was there, he might as well make himself useful, no?

"Master, would you mind me cleaning the room a little? I lack the necessary utensils, but I could at least help with making the bed and the likes."

"Hm? Oh, sure! I suppose it's been a while since you last came over to clean, huh?"

"I admit that I've been avoiding my duties to let the commotion die down, but once it has I'll resume immediately." Gudako had wanted to say that it was fine even if he stopped coming over, but seeing his content expression she decided to just let him be. If Amakusa liked cleaning her room, why would she stop him? He certainly did a good job at it.

"Well, if you want there's a dust rag in that drawer over there. I'll help out too, of course," she said, standing up almost simultaneously with Amakusa.

"That's not necessary-"

"No, I insist," Gudako cut the Ruler off, "I'd just feel guilty if I sat down while you were cleaning."

"… Alright then. I'll dust, you make the bed?"

"Deal!"

The mutual cleaning was done in peaceful silence, and Amakusa noted that now that things had calmed down after the incineration of humanity, Gudako had been cleaning her room more. Her desk was still messy and the floor needed mopping, but he supposed things hadn't turned _that_ calm.

With two people working together the cleaning was done soon, and Gudako got a pair of soft drinks from a minifridge. A glance inside as she opened the door revealed only a few other drinks, a bottle of water and some pots of fruit yogurt. Seems like Gudako had a sweet tooth as always.

"Here you go," the girl said as she handed Amakusa his drink, "I'd have made you tea instead, but for that I'd need to get some hot water and leave the room…"

"No, this is fine. Thank you, Master." With a nod Gudako sat down on her bed once more, with Amakusa returning to the chair. He looked at the drink he'd been offered: a dark brown one with slightly golden hues when held up in the light, with bubbles in the liquid.

When he had yet to open the bottle after Gudako took a swig of her own, she asked: "Do you not like coke, maybe?"

"Oh no, that's not it. It's just that this is actually my first time drinking this, so I was just observing it a little."

"Alright, got it. Just as a small warning: this is a carbonized drink, so when you drink from it you might feel a little prickling in your mouth. It's normal and actually adds to the taste, but you might've been surprised by it otherwise, so…"

"I appreciate the warning. Well then…" Twisting open the cap like he'd seen Gudako do, Amakusa immediately noticed the sweet, chemical smell rise up to his nose. It smelled surprisingly good, though he wasn't surprised that it was indeed as sweet-smelling as all of Gudako's other sugary vices.  
He took a small sip as a test.

"And, what do you think?" Gudako asked when he'd swallowed said sip.

"It tastes good. Is this drink common where you're from, Master?"

"I suppose you could say so, though the taste's a little bit different. The recipe for it varies a little for each country it's made in, so when travelling abroad the taste is always a bit of a surprise. I rather like this version, though." The idea of mass-manufactured goods showing variety between countries surprised Amakusa, and he asked Gudako about it.  
What followed was a discussion about the mass production of goods in the modern world (although it was fairly superficial since neither of the two were authorities on the subject), followed by many more topics.

When Amakusa finally decided to leave, it was only after a brief glance at the clock revealed to him that they'd been talking for over two hours already.

"Well then," he said as he rose up, moving to unlock the door, "this should be enough time for Edmond to have calmed down a little, or to at least stop hunting me. Thank you for providing me shelter, Master."

"I'm just glad I could help, that's all. If you ever need to hide here again, don't be afraid to ask."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

And with that sentence Amakusa was out the door, which automatically closed behind him.  
Left alone with her thoughts once more, Gudako couldn't help but note that it was always a bit weird, to be alone in her room with a man. Certainly, she'd invited over plenty of male Servants so far – always for conversation like just now – but she had yet to get accustomed to the idea.  
This also went for Amakusa, although Gudako did fully trust him (at the very least, she trusted him not to try anything with her. The backstabbing was still an ever-present concern, but only in the back of her mind). Well, she thought as she flopped down onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling, Amakusa was also among the Servants who didn't try to hit on her or Mash at any given moment, so that likely added to her trust in him.  
Suddenly feeling a bit tired, she decided to close her eyes and take a little nap…


	6. Chapter 6: The Hotel Room Key

**As one might be able to tell from reading this chapter, I came up with this idea during the Valentine's event (NA 2019, to be specific). Started writing it all at this time, too.  
As such, the next three chapters including this one will all be set sometime shortly after said event and involve Amakusa's reactions to some of the gifts his Master received. And after that there'll probably be a compilation chapter dedicated to multiple less lengthy reactions to other return gifts. **

**Anyways, on with the story!**

* * *

For the first time in a while, Amakusa found himself walking to his Master's room with cleaning utensils in hand.  
With the chaos of Valentine's Day having just passed, he figured his Master's room would be covered in chocolate and would need some cleaning. Considering she'd been the main target of the many chocolates created, it wouldn't be unthinkable that some of the chocolate Servants had managed to breach her room and make a complete mess.  
Only, as he entered her room, he realized this task would require a _lot_ more effort than just cleaning…

If someone had told the Ruler that a single room could be crammed so full with what seemed like the most random objects collected through all of Chaldea yet somehow still leave space open to walk, he wouldn't have believed them. Chaldea's bedrooms just weren't that large.  
And yet, standing there he was forced to stare at the proof that this was in fact was completely possible. He couldn't even _see_ the bed anymore as it was obscured behind a veritable wall of math(?) books, but he could see a faint gap between said wall and the actual wall where a person could squeeze through to reach the bed. Provided it wasn't buried underneath even more return gifts, of course.  
… Rather than cleaning up the traces of chocolate he saw here and there, perhaps he'd do better to focus on trying to find a storage room for all of these…?

Actually, speaking of chocolates…  
Amakusa approached Gudako's desk – while sidestepping a fishing basket repurposed as an impromptu fishing rod, walking staff, spear and etc. holder – which was covered with various chocolates. The amount on it alone was impressive, but looking into the trash bin next to it he saw what appeared to be the wrappings of about the same amount.  
Considering it was only a day after Valentine's, was Gudako's stomach alright after eating that much?  
Then again, he considered as he looked at the stacks of return gifts, perhaps she'd eaten such an amount to clear up at least some space inside her room. It would make sense to store or throw some of this away to make space, but he doubted Gudako would do that with presents she received.

The room was absolutely riddled with objects Amakusa had never seen before: A boar hoodie hanging from the coat rack, a giant bust of Nero standing on the bedside table (that could only have come from Caligula: Nero had enough of an ego that she'd send one herself, but she was neither skilled enough to sculpt this, nor would she not have given chocolate), a mini piano next to it, a pile of what looked like _even more _math books stacked into the shape of a throne over in the corner… Truly, imagining the amount of chocolate Gudako must've made to receive so many return gifts would have to be staggering, yet another proof of the young Master's dedication to her own Servants. In a way it was admirable, and Amakusa was certain that the others respected her for such effort as well.

Though looking at it all, he was glad he'd given her food instead, which wouldn't take up any space once it was eaten.  
… But perhaps he should've done _something _different with the food, as his Master had seemed somewhat disappointed by his return gift, even though it was handmade and she'd admitted it tasted good. In particular, her face turned dark when he mentioned his aim to mass-produce it as a souvenir… She _did_ question his sincerity.  
On a different note, after finding out his handmade food tasted good, Gudako had narrowed her eyes at him and asked if he had a talent for cooking in general, maybe even have a talent for housekeeping in general. Amakusa had to conclude that every day, the amount of people – both Servants and humans – that believed he and (Archer) Emiya were not related dwindled…

Deciding to focus on cleaning the chocolate stains left behind here and there, Amakusa started working. It all went fine, until he saw… _that_.  
Lying on the desk almost innocently, between what would've looked like a bag of convenience store chocolates were it not for the image of Hundred-Faces printed on the bag and a collection of rough-looking chocolate that Amakusa had also received some of – it took him an entire day of scrubbing his tongue with a toothbrush before he could get the bitter taste out – laid a key. Not just any key, but what appeared to be the key to a _hotel room_, the hanger reading '2017'.  
In his defense, Amakusa _tried_ to ignore it. It was clearly something his Master had received, likely a valentine's return gift. If someone decided to give her an entire hotel room or something, well, there were certainly generous Servants eccentric enough to give her such. Only, those Servants were usually _so _generous and eccentric that they would've just given Gudako _an entire hotel_ to start with, not just a singular room. Then in this case it seems less likely that the gift was the room itself, but rather it was…

Amakusa didn't jump when the door suddenly opened and Gudako herself walked in, but it was close.

"Oh, hey Amakusa. Sorry, I didn't know you were cleaning: Want me to come back later?"

"No, it's fine: I was almost done." Looking things over Gudako noticed that he was in fact as good as done, not a chocolate stain in sight. Amakusa had continued cleaning diligently while stealing glances at that key.

"Oh, now that you mention it, I don't see any of the mess the chocolate Servants left behind anymore. Thanks!" Amakusa answered Gudako's smile with an infallible one of his own, but hidden behind that smile his thoughts remained focused on the key, debating when the best moment to bring it up would be.

"It's going to be a lot more difficult storing all of these return gifts, though. Would it be alright if I ask you to help with that sometime soon?"

"Of course: I shall do my best to aid you." Noticing a lull in the conversation, Amakusa took this chance to bring up _that_.

"Master, by the way, while I was cleaning up, I found something odd…"

"Hm? You did? Probably one of the gifts, then: some of those were pretty unique…"

"Ah, nothing strange, just something that stood out to me, really. If I might ask, why do you have a key," Amakusa gestured to the offending object lying oh-so innocuously on the desk in the least accusing way possible, "to a hotel room?"

"Oh, that? I suppose it looks rather strange, though I didn't really think about it amongst all the other stuff here. Anyways, I got it from Fergus: he invited me over to a room from a city we once rayshifted to."

"… Fergus?" Amakusa had not had many interactions with the Saber, but he knew more than enough about his reputation to know why exactly the man had asked his Master to come to that room. And honestly, he didn't like his motive one bit.

"… I see. Well, you turned him down of course, no?" Amakusa wasn't sure why he even felt the need to ask: Gudako had resisted the charms of so many Servants (admittedly almost all of them were women, but he didn't want to think about how Gudako might actually fall for any of the male Servants' potential advances) that surely she'd not be seduced so easily?  
And then Gudako spoke. And then Amakusa felt his world crumbling (if only a little).

"Actually I went to see him there: it'd have been rude to refuse, no?"

"…"

"… Amakusa? You're making a weird face. Amakusa?"

… He could hardly believe it. 'It'd have been rude to refuse', _that_ was all it took for a Servant to convince their Master to-.  
It was more worrying than anything else. If this was truly how she thought, then she'd accept anything a Servant – or perhaps even worse, an enemy in disguise – offered her, no matter how obvious their ulterior motive. What would she do if someone once offered her an obviously spiked drink?  
Amakusa noticed he'd stopped breathing (not that such a thing was all that necessary for a Servant, but not doing it reflexively made him – and more importantly the humans around him – feel uncomfortable) and forced himself to take a breath through his nose. It did not relieve the pressure in his chest in the slightest.

"Um, hello? You've been staring at me like that for a full minute…"

No, no, he had to remain calm.  
While it was certainly one hell – excuse him, _heck_ – of a shock to the Ruler, he had to remind himself that times were different now. Not only were… _relations_ before marriage acceptable – no, practically the norm – now, physical intimacy in general had become a far looser idea than it used to be. There was no reason for a healthy young woman to refuse such an offer if both parties were consenting adults (not old enough to drink, but old enough to decide over her own body? How did that make _any_ sense?). And if Fergus had wronged Gudako in any way, there were more than enough other Servants who'd (sometimes literally) roast the Saber alive for that.  
He knew there was absolutely no reason for Gudako to not be allowed to accept that offer, and yet… To Amakusa, the idea of _his Master_ – no, Gudako – having _relations_ with someone… It was an image that made him sick down to his core. It was confusing more than anything, really. He hadn't seen himself as narrow-minded, yet he found himself desperately wishing that this was all just some misunderstanding, that Gudako had just gone there to see the room and nothing more…!

"Amakusa? Hey, Amakusa!" The Ruler was abruptly shaken from his thoughts by Gudako's face leaning noticeably closer to his, enough to make one nervous if she didn't interrupt the space left between them by waving her hand from right to left in front of his eyes. He blinked.

"… Master? Did you say something?" Confusing Amakusa even more, Gudako let out a sigh that appeared relieved.

"Finally, I was starting to worry something was wrong! You've been staring blankly in front of you for the past five minutes! Yeesh, I was starting to realize just how bad Mash must've had it back when I was stuck in Chateau d'If…" Had it truly been that bad? Comparing it to her time at Chateau d'If was surely an exaggeration, no?

"My apologies: I was somewhere else with my thoughts," but as he said this the Ruler had a sudden realization.

"… More importantly, Master, what did you do there?"

"'There'? You mean Chateau d'If?"

"No, I mean the hotel room. You went there to visit Fergus, no?" Gudako made a face, apparently not appreciating that Amakusa appeared to have no intention to explain his sudden zoning out, but she just shrugged and decided to forget about it: for all that everyone kept telling her she had a way with understanding and befriending Servants, Gudako found they still confused her as much as everyone else.

"Nothing special, really. I arrived at the room, Fergus let me in, and he showed me around." That… sounded innocent enough.

"… Did you stay over there?"

"Well, yes? That's what you do in a hotel, no? Stay the night?"

"… _With Fergus?_" Oh dear, the coiling in his gut was coming back…

"Yep. It'd be kinda rude to kick him out of the room he rented, no? Well, he took the boring option and slept in the bed, though." Amakusa blinked once more as he processed the meaning of those words. He concluded he couldn't understand.

"… Sleeping in the bed was the boring option? So… you didn't sleep in a bed?"

"Nope! I slept in the hammock!" Gudako almost seemed proud of that. Actually, scratch the 'almost': she was obviously pleased with herself for apparently taking the 'interesting' option.

"… Correct me if I'm wrong, but you said you were staying at a _hotel_, no? Was it perhaps at some tropical location?" The confused Ruler could think of no other reason that a hotel would have a hammock.

"No, it was right inside a city. A Japanese city, too, though I didn't catch the name of the place."

"…"

"…"

Amakusa finally, _finally_ noticed that at some point during the conversation, Gudako's happy smile had taken on some characteristics of a smirk, and he realized she was laughing at him. He didn't doubt she was telling the truth, but she was purposefully telling it to him only in bits and pieces, enjoying his confusion as he tried to work out what exactly had happened.  
Perhaps the girl had been spending a bit too much time hanging out with the more evil-aligned Servants in Chaldea. Or just Cu Chulainn in particular. The grin on her face reminded Amakusa of the ones the older Lancer or Caster wore when laughing at some of the more reserved Servants, only far less inviting to punch when it came from her, and thus easier to forgive.  
Well, he supposed it was partly his fault as well for getting so flustered in the first place: it really wasn't like him to lose his cool like that.

After a small sigh, Amakusa said: "Very well, I admit that I have no idea what kind of hotel room you were staying at. Could you elaborate, please?"

"Sure!" Gudako was lucky her sheepish grin – perhaps feeling the slightest bit guilty over leading the Ruler astray (which was actually kinda impressive considering Amakusa's history of scheming) – was adorable, or he might've actually felt a little upset with her for this deception. But as it were it took all he could to not start grinning along with her, simply because her happiness was so infectious.

"Anyways, it wasn't really an ordinary hotel. The room Fergus rented was a pretty fancy one, with all kinds of things to do and see! There was a game console there, so we played some old video games I knew from home. Even managed to beat Fergus at some, too! By the time we were done with those it was already pretty late, so we both just went to sleep after that."

"I see…" Words could not describe how relieved Amakusa felt. He was rather curious about there apparently existing such strange hotels in Japan, but he was too relieved to really question it. It was for much the same reason that the Ruler couldn't bring himself to feel angry with Fergus for clearly having other motives in mind, as in the end the man had accepted that Gudako wasn't interested and just went along with what she wanted to do. In fact, with the wave of relief washing over him made Amakusa suddenly feel somewhat tired, a sensation he hadn't experienced often as a Servant.  
Well, he was done cleaning anyways, so it was probably best for him to leave.

"I am glad to hear you enjoyed it. But if you'll excuse me, I'll go put these," he held up the cleaning utensils, "away and then return to my room."

"You do that. I'll ask you when it's time to start moving some of these gifts, alright?"

"Of course," and with that the Ruler gave a small bow before striding out the room.

As he walked away, it suddenly struck Amakusa that feeling such a large amount of relief like this was not normal. After all, his Master's chastity wasn't any of his business (unless her chosen partner was a threat, but despite not liking the Saber much after this shock, Amakusa was certain Fergus would never harm Gudako). Was he worried about other Servants' reactions if they found out? About Fergus' well-being in that scenario?  
After pondering over it for a while he tried to recall other times when Servants looked unkindly on someone making advances on their Master, and when it wasn't out of jealousy he found the motives were often almost _familial_ in nature. He couldn't be sure about every Servant, but at least a couple of the male Servants seemed to view themselves as paternal figures towards Gudako.  
Yes, that must have been the same for him: while obtaining the holy grail was still his end goal, Amakusa had decided to put aside this to focus on serving her. And even besides that he'd found himself growing fond of the girl. She might've physically been just a bit older than him, but Amakusa did have all of his experience as a Servant – along with those sixty-or-so years of being incarnated – to keep in mind, all of which he remembered due to being summoned as a Ruler. He didn't view her in _quite_ the same light as the young Santa Jeanne Alter, but that could easily be blamed on the difference in the girls' ages.

Amakusa let out a sigh at how meddlesome he had become towards his Master's private life. While there was nothing wrong with a good bond between Master and Servant, he really had to dial back on the overprotectiveness.

* * *

As she saw Amakusa off, Gudako couldn't help but be happy that information given to summoned Servants about modern establishments weren't too detailed.  
She wasn't really surprised that _Fergus_ of all people knew that those places even existed, but she had been a bit worried that other Servants might hear her description and have realized it. It was why she decided to tell Amakusa, who was one of the less likely folks to go and slaughter Fergus – or worse, _tattle about it_ to the more jealous Servants. She didn't even want to imagine the cruel death the Saber would've otherwise faced at the hands of other Servants…

Then again, perhaps it had been silly for her to worry about Servants knowing detailed info about something even Gudako was surprised at. She'd always imagined love hotels to be seedy places like in the few manga she'd read that mentioned them, but as it turned out they were pretty fun, and the room service food was great!  
(She'd refrained from trying out the cosplay costumes they offered, though if she ever went to one with a guy she liked _that way_ she might consider it.)

Content with how things had turned out, Gudako turned around and happily walked back into her room – only to promptly bump her toe into the _chocolate weight_ Martha had given her.  
Yeah, she'd have to get Amakusa to help her with sorting all of these out sooner rather than later, she thought as she hopped around on one foot while she clutched the other, just barely avoiding tripping and breaking her head open on the Nero bust. Though trying to actually e_at_ that solid chocolate weight was going to be a challenge comparable to Spartacus' return gift…

* * *

**Just, for the record? Not gonna lie, Gudako's slight saltiness about Amakusa's prototype-souvenir cookies was mine. I can **_**definitely**_** get why Gudako questioned his sincerity about it. As such, if Valentine's ever gets brought up again after this set of chapters, expect there to be mention about it. **

**And I'm a bit worried that Amakusa not realizing he's attracted to Gudako – because let's be honest, that's what's going on here – might seem out of character, but I wrote it keeping in mind that during his lifetime he never got past 17 years old, and that he's unlikely to have had much interest in romance before and during the events of Apocrypha. I'm not counting the bit with Semiramis because unless it's part of the light novel version that I've yet to read that far, we don't get much insight on how Amakusa might've viewed their relationship. From my perspective all we know for sure is that he didn't seem to dislike the kiss she gave him. **

**Anyways, enough of me making excuses for myself: I just hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7: A Distant Wedding

"Thanks again for agreeing to help, Amakusa: moving all of this by myself would've ruined my back!" Gudako laughed as she spread the shroud she'd received from Cursed Arm over her blanket, deciding that for now it'd take up less space as an extra cover to keep the early spring chill away.

"Of course, Master, I'm happy to be of help." Amakusa immediately proved his worth as he lifted the heavy bust of Nero, placing it in a corner of the room. As Gudako would've felt bad to store Caligula's hard work from a rare moment of sanity away in a musty closet, she'd decided it wouldn't be too problematic if it was at least not placed in the way of anything.  
Amakusa had pointed out that it still took up plenty of space, but Gudako tried to defend herself by saying it could act as an impromptu chair or coat-holder (as if there would ever be enough people entering this room to fill up the main coat holder in the first place). Amakusa decided to drop the subject, accepting that this gratitude for received presents was a slightly troublesome – if also endearing – trait of their Master.

As one could easily guess from looking at the scene, Gudako had finally gotten around to storing away the more difficult (read: non-edible) presents she'd received on Valentine's Day and had enlisted Amakusa's aid in doing so. Rather understandable, as not only was there enough stuff crammed in here to fill up an entire garage sale, the Nero bust alone would've been far too heavy for her to carry.

They were making good progress working separately, only ever briefly stopping for small banter or when Amakusa had to ask where to put something.  
Amakusa took this chance to see what some of the Servants had gotten their Master out of curiosity (and maybe to get inspiration for next year so as to avoid the same blunder of his being one of the few gifts Gudako had actually been disappointed with). And he had to say, Chaldea's Servants were nothing if not creative in gift-giving.

"This is… fishing gear?" Amakusa asked as he inspected a wooden bucket and what appeared to be a rather simple fishing rod.

"Oh, yep, got those from Touta," Gudako said as she glanced up from stacking Babbage's math books into the shape of a grand throne. She'd promised herself not to donate any of the books to the library until she'd at least leafed through them, but when would she ever find the time (and work up the motivation) to do so…?

Noticing Amakusa was still looking at the gear, she asked: "Interested in fishing?"

"No, just curious. I've never gone fishing myself, but I've seen some of the younger kids in my hometown with similar things, so I got a bit nostalgic. Have you used this set yet?"

"Once when Touta showed me how to fish after giving it to me, but I haven't gotten another chance to practice yet. I've never fished before then either, but he's a good teacher."

"I'm sure."

"Want to come with me next time I ask him for a lesson? The more the merrier and all."

"… I'll consider it, thank you for asking."

"Speaking of fishing," Gudako said as she stored Caster Cu's druid staff in the closet, making a mental note to bring it with her next time she's planning on rayshifting to a more mountainous area so she can use it as a walking stick, "Turns out Cu and Emiya (though according to the former the latter cheated with some kind of special fishing rod) are also good at it, along with some other Servants. When Gilgamesh heard this, he apparently got _really_ competitive, and now there's going to be a small fishing contest sometime soon."

"Now that you mention it, I think I heard about that: some Servants have been going around trying to recruit us Rulers and other neutral-aligned Servants to act as judges."

"Huh, can't say I'm-" Amakusa would never learn what Gudako was going to say next, as she abruptly cut herself off. At the same time, something behind him was spreading such a bright gold and red glow that it was reflected on the white walls, making for quite the spectacle. It was followed by the light disappearing as something was clacked closed, and he could hear Gudako mutter a small 'ow'.

"Are you alright?" He asked as he turned around and walked over to her.

"Yes, I'm fine: I just got a bit blinded when the light fell a bit badly on the object in here," Gudako said with a laugh as she held up the wooden box she was holding.

"What's in it?"

"I'll show you." Making sure to angle the box away from the ceiling light this time, Gudako once more opened it.  
Inside of it was a magnificent bridal headpiece in Chinese style, and Amakusa had to admit it was a marvelous piece, clearly one of the more expensive gifts Gudako must've received.  
… He was kind of curious over which Servant would give their Master a _wedding_ accessory, however.

"I got it from Lu Bu: he said I should wear it on my wedding day." Amakusa figured Lu Bu had likely given it in genuine gratitude and _not_ with an ulterior motive, but he was distracted by the words 'wedding day'.

They seemed to resound within his head, and before he'd even realized it he found himself asking: "Do you already have any concrete ideas about what your desired wedding would be like?" He felt intrusive for having asked such a personal question when he saw Gudako's eyes widen in surprise. But luckily, she didn't seem to mind it too much, and took her time thinking it over.  
After a minute she finally looked up again.

"Honestly? I've always liked the idea of a western-style wedding – even though now that means I'll have to somehow find a dress to fit the headpiece, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. As for a potential groom… No, I've got no one in mind."

"Not even outside of Chaldea?"

Gudako shook her head before saying: "At this point I'm kind of glad about that: it'd have been an extra layer of depressing if I _also_ had a dead boyfriend, regardless of how we were fixing to undo the incineration of humanity."

"… I see." It was quite rare for Gudako to admit that the situation back then was truly affecting her, just like all the other humans present. Of course, no one in Chaldea wanted humanity to be incinerated, but in a way the Heroic Spirits were more distant from it: they fought to protect the world they'd once lived in, but anyone they knew and loved in life were already long gone. The humans who still had family and friends left to lose outside of Chaldea only managed to keep their spirits up through focusing on their goal: preventing all those deaths from happening in the first place.  
Considering that Gudako had been living a carefree life before all of this, the same must have applied to her as well. Yet whether through natural pluckiness or just a talent at suppressing her own grief, she rarely showed any sadness about it. Even when something terrible happened in the Singularities, she always seemed to retain enough cheer to find a quick retort or an encouraging remark for her companions and sometimes even enemies.  
So to hear her admitting to how heavy this all had weighed on her – even if only for a moment – meant Amakusa had touched upon a sensitive subject. No, perhaps speaking of her life in the outside world at all was a sensitive subject.

"Anyways, I was rather vague with just saying 'western-style wedding', huh? You see…" Seemingly wanting to change the subject, Gudako went on a small tangent, producing more and more details of what she imagined her dream wedding to be. Amakusa respected that and didn't press the subject. In fact, he decided that for now it'd be best to just let her finish her rant to the end, staying silent as he continued moving various presents around, only occasionally piping in with a 'I see' or 'hm' to show he was still paying attention.

He did find himself trying to imagine what said wedding would be like: a slightly older Gudako, wearing a white wedding dress, the headpiece that started this conversation of course fitting perfectly. The bride walking towards the altar being escorted by her father who – while Amakusa had no idea what the actual man looked like – he for some reason imagined being similar in appearance to Roman. Maybe it was because they were both the only humans he regularly spoke with? He interacted with nearly all of Chaldea's staff, but only had real conversations with few.  
Though if he was strictly trying to imagine a 'father-figure' among everyone he knew in Chaldea, strangely King Ozymandias seemed to fit that role better. He made a bit of a face at that idea, but luckily Gudako was busy moving a small wooden horse to place it at the back of her desk.

Moving back to his daydream he imagined her walking down the aisle and standing with her groom. For the life of him Amakusa couldn't imagine what her husband's face would look like. He'd probably be a typical Japanese man, good personality and an honest job. Perhaps short black hair and wearing that kind of white suit Amakusa had heard was typical at western-style weddings.  
Yet despite the vagueness of his identity, the idea of this mystery groom made Amakusa uneasy. Ah, he really was becoming overprotective, thinking so badly of potential events so far into the future…

As he noticed Gudako was finally reaching the end of her rant, Amakusa decided to ask her to take a small lunch break: perhaps some of Emiya's food could keep her mind off the subject of the world outside this facility.

* * *

**Short, but sweet! With this the Valentine's chapters are nearly at their end, the next chapter simply being a collection of short reactions to various gifts Gudako received from her Servants.  
As always, thank you for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8: Return Gifts Reactions

Tick-Tock:

"Master, are you certain that's a good idea?"

"Hm? What do you mean?" Gudako looked up from where she was doting on a small spider automaton to look at Amakusa, her expression indicating she had no idea what he was referring to.

"Well, that spider, it's the collaboration item made by Mephistopheles and Nursery Rhyme, no? The one infamous for exploding from the slightest shock?"

"Yes, what's wrong with it?"

"… Does the _explosion_ part not concern you?"

With a shrug, Gudako said: "not really, no."

And that was that, although Amakusa always looked twice the following weeks when cleaning his Master's room, vigilant to ensure he didn't accidentally bump into the little contraption.

No visitor to Gudako's room was able to relax until it got blown up. No one was sure _how_ it happened, but the leading theory is that one of Gudako's stalkers tried sneaking into her room, bumped into it and set it off. In Amakusa and many others' opinion, it was a load off their shoulders.

* * *

Bayard's Mane:

"Amakusa, wait up!" Amakusa halted as he turned around, seeing the Master of Chaldea approach him from the other end of the hallway.

"Ah, Master. Do you need something?"

With a nod, she said: "Right. It's actually about this." The 'this' was accompanied by Gudako pointing towards the woven choker she was wearing. Amakusa recognized it: Saint George had been making it as a return gift for the chocolates Gudako gave him, and had asked the other saints' aid in imbuing it with prayers.

"George mentioned you also helped with making it." He confirmed it with a nod.

"Yes, what about it?"

"I just wanted to let you know I really like it, and so I've been thanking everyone who helped make it. I already ran into Jeanne and Martha, so you were the only one left."

"I'm glad to hear you like it so much, though I must admit the initiative was completely Saint George's."

"Even so, I appreciate you helping him. Well, that was all I wanted to say, and I've still got some things to do, so see you around!" With a wave Gudako left the Ruler behind, who returned said gesture.

As she walked back to her room, Gudako touched the choker, pondering one oddity about it she had noticed.

It seemed that every time she wore it Blackbeard tented to stay quite a distance away from her. Perhaps it had to do the choker also has warding properties…?

* * *

Bitter Bitter Bitter Chocolates:

Gudako entered Chaldea's cafeteria, only to notice a familiar figure sitting at one of the tables.

"Oh, hey Amakusa!" She called out as she walked up to him.

"Ah, hello, Master," the Ruler returned her greeting, though Gudako noticed he was making a rather uncomfortable face. Just as she was wondering what was wrong, he eyes wandered over to what was lying on the table in front of him, and she instantly understood: lying on a napkin was a small pile of pitch black chocolates, the cutesy shapes hiding its extremely bitter taste from the unassuming gaze.

"You're trying to eat some of Jeanne Lily's chocolates?"

"I take it you received some as well, then?" Gudako nodded, and opened the lunch box she'd brought with her: inside it were more of the same chocolates, as pitch black yet cute looking as the ones on the table.

"I just couldn't continue eating them like this, so I was thinking of trying to melt them into hot chocolate, add some milk and sugar to soften the bitterness, and drink it like that."

"Hot chocolate? I see, that's a good idea. Might I add my chocolates to that as well? We'll share the drink, then." Gudako nodded, and the two moved onto the kitchen to borrow a stove and other necessities.

Eventually – after going through two bottles of milk and an entire package of sugar – they managed to lessen the hot chocolate's bitterness enough that they could drink it without much issue, at which point they both agreed that it tasted pretty well like this.

* * *

Secret, Prized, Treasured Albums:

Amakusa Shirou Tokisada was dutifully cleaning his Master's room when he stumbled upon them.

He'd been putting her freshly-washed clothes into her closet when, lying on the bottom pressed against the wall, he noticed what appeared to be albums. There were three of them, with covers in blue, green and red.

It seemed like an odd thing, placing such books in the closet. He figured his Master would want to place them on her shelf or desk instead, but maybe she had a reason to stuff them in here?

In trying to determine where to put these mystery albums, he took the top album – the blue one – with the intention of opening it to see what kind of book it was.

But just then, his Revelation skill kicked in, and a shiver went down his spine. It was a brief image of himself, lying horribly mutilated and probably dead on the floor of this very room, but it was enough to make him realize just how dangerous the thing he was holding inside his hand was. And if the other two books were as dangerous as this one… Well, Amakusa was now rather concerned that his Master was holding onto objects this dangerous. It made sense why she stuffed them in the back of her closet like this, though in his opinion it wasn't enough: what if one of her many stalkers decided to go through her belongings and came across this? It'd surely end horribly for _someone_, at least.

As such, the Ruler took the three albums and hid them inside the room, hoping no one would ever stumble upon them.

And just to be sure, he said a quick prayer for his Master, that she may never encounter those albums again.

* * *

Victory Rose:

As was usual, Amakusa entered his Master's room with cleaning utensils at hand.

As was less usual, said Master was still in her room at this time of day.

And as was just plain concerning, she was lying with her head lying on her desk, clutching her stomach with a pained groan.

Amakusa immediately put the cleaning tools down, rushing over to her side, already wondering if he should get a healer like Martha or Irisviel, or someone with medical expertise like Nightingale (whom he'd rather not call if unneeded as she'd surely put Gudako through more suffering than she was currently experiencing) instead.

"Master, what's wrong?! Are you hurt!?"

"Huh? Oh, hi Amakusa." In contrast to the concerned Ruler, Gudako looked quite calm, despite her obvious pain. She even gave him a small smile. Seeing she wasn't in danger calmed Amakusa down a bit, although he wasn't entirely assured that she was alright.

"Master, are you alright? I heard you groaning in pain."

"Oh, you heard that? Sorry about that, it's actually pretty stupid." An slightly embarrassed expression on her face, Gudako nodded her head towards something on her desk. For the first time since entering the room the Ruler took his eyes off of her to see what she was gesturing towards, and what was standing on the desk was the largest cake he'd ever seen. It was, with no exaggeration, humongous. Even more noticeable was that quite a large slice had been cut out of it, and combined with the empty plate and fork lying next to it, it wasn't difficult to conclude what had happened.

"As you can see, I stupidly ate too much cake, and gave myself stomach ache. It's really my fault for underestimating how filling this stuff was: Boudica warned me, but it still took me by surprise."

"I see. But why didn't you stop eating the moment you noticed you were getting full?"

"Well, I was honestly planning on just eating a small part of it today, but after taking it out of my fridge I just couldn't fit it back inside, so to avoid letting it go bad I tried to ate some more."

With some minor disbelief Amakusa walked over to the fridge to open it and see how that was possible… only to find himself with Gudako's apparent skill at stuffing the majority of her chocolates into it without anything being squished or the fridge itself bursting open.

From behind him Gudako remarked: "It's like trying to put things back into an unpacked suitcase: they never fit as well as they did the first time."

"Actually, do you feel like helping out with finishing this? I think I've just proven that I can't eat it all alone."

"I don't mind, but I fear that even with the two of us that would be too much cake. Instead, might I suggest handing out slices to some others instead?"

"Oh, that could work! Who do you have in mind?"

"I was thinking of the child Servants."

With a nod, Gudako said: "Right, that makes sense. And I'm sure Boudica won't mind if I share some with them, too. Alright, let's do that!"

And right after saying this she laid her head back on the desk, once more clutching her stomach with a groan.

"We'll get right on that _after_ I can look at food without feeling sick again…"

* * *

Homemade Cookies and Object X: 

Amakusa was going to enter Gudako's room to clean it like her normally does. Was, until the door opened and he had to dodge a dumbbell flying right towards him.

It was quite the impressive dumbbell, too: it hit the floor with a sound that made the Ruler worry one of the floor tiles was going to crack, and finally came to a halt when it rolled and bumped into the wall.

"Amakusa, sorry about that!" He switched his gaze from the dumbbell to his apologetic Master, who approached him from her room.

"It's fine, I had no problem dodging. But might I ask why you were throwing a dumbbell at the door?"

"Well, I wasn't actually throwing it at the door: I threw it at the floor, when it then bounced and flew towards the door. It was just really bad timing that you happened to be standing outside at that moment."

"Then why were you throwing a dumbbell around in your room? I don't imagine that's too healthy for the floor."

"You see, it's not _actually_ a dumbbell. Just take a closer look, you'll see what I mean." With a nod the Ruler did so, picking up the weight with no problem.

The moment he touched it he understood what Gudako meant: rather than the metal of a normal dumbbell, this was made out of something else. Along with the brown color he only now noticed and what appeared to be tooth marks along various parts, it wasn't difficult to realize this was in fact a chocolate shaped like a dumbbell (and it was impressively solid enough that its weight wasn't too far off, either).

"I got it from Martha, along with some other food. I managed to eat the rest no problem, but I just can't seem to break a piece off of this one: it's quite hard. So I was trying to shatter it so I could just let the pieces melt in my mouth instead of trying to chew, but as you can see that didn't work."

"Indeed, it's rather impressive that she managed to make something edible this hard."

"I'm rather bothered: I tried a lot of things now, but I just can't get it to break. I'm afraid I'll have to put it in a pot and just let it melt, after all."

"Well, I'd be willing to help see if we can't find a way to break it, first."

"You will? Thank you!"

Despite the Ruler's help, after trying countless things they eventually had to resort to asking (Archer) Emiya to project a sword sharp enough to cut through the chocolate, as conventional weaponry (or at least as conventional as black keys and a katana enchanted to the level of a Noble Phantasm can be) proved to be of no use.

When they were actually able to taste it, however, they all had to agree there was nothing at all wrong with the taste.

* * *

**Aaand that's it for the Valentine's stuff (at least until I get to this year's content)! **

**I hope you enjoyed reading this, and depending on which Servants I've gained between last year's Valentine's and the next one, I might do multiple larger chapters like earlier, or just another collection of small scenes like this one. **

**Either way, until next time, for some more miscellaneous chapters! **


	9. Chapter 9: Competitive Fishing Servants

**For anyone who might've forgotten (which I wouldn't blame you for, since it was only briefly mentioned two months ago), this chapter details the fishing competition mentioned during chapter 7.**

**I hope you enjoy reading it!**

* * *

Initially Gudako had figured that a minor fishing competition would be a small affair, of little interest to most Servants.

She eventually had to concede she was completely wrong about that, as with almost every Servant in Chaldea attending, it had turned into an outright fishing festival, with the competition as its main attraction. And what Servants weren't taking part in the fishing itself were enjoying themselves just spectating, which before today Gudako could have never imagined could be fun. Then again, adding a kraken, leviathan and other sea monsters to the pool of 'fish' was likely enough to spice up just about any competition.

Gudako and some unbiased Servants were acting as judges, but as there was a small break in the competition Chaldea's Master was taking this opportunity to look around the festival.  
Initially she was accompanied in this touring around by Mash, but her kouhai had been roped into getting herself some fishing lessons, so Gudako got to talking with Amakusa who happened to be passing by.

"How are you enjoying the competition so far?" Gudako asked the Ruler as they walked.

"It's a very interesting competition to follow, though I must admit that I've been amazed by the… unusual approaches of some Servants." It wasn't difficult to guess he was referring to situations like Emiya (Archer) projecting a futuristic fishing rod, or Gilgamesh (Archer) with his solid gold, super prototype fishing rod he just pulled out of his Gate of Babylon.

"You can say 'borderline cheating' if you want, honestly. The only reason they aren't disqualified is because despite the advantage their equipment gives them, experienced fishers like Touta aren't falling behind in the slightest."

As they talked the duo reached a small pier off to the side of the main activities, upon which they spotted a tired-looking Cu (Lancer) fishing. Or more like four Cu's, as his three other selves were fishing besides him.

Proto-Cu and Cu (Caster) appeared to be enjoying themselves just fine, making jokes as they sat there. Meanwhile Cu Alter was as stoic as ever, albeit he looked slightly ridiculous as he was fishing with his tail instead of a fishing rod. Still, the shark lying next to him proved his method was working.

Gudako with Amakusa in tow approached.

"Hey guys, are they biting?" Four gazes turned to regard her as one, and while Cu Alter gave her a curt huff, the other three greeted her in their usual casual manner.

"Heya, Master. Feel like trying to see for yourself?"

"Thanks, but no thanks: I need to get back to judging the competition in a few minutes, so I'm just here to make small talk."

"Ah? That's too bad."

"Yeah, especially because we're only not taking part in the main one because the other Lancer over there refused to," Proto-Cu said, nodding at Cu (Lancer).

Before anyone could say anymore, they were distracted by the familiar sound of an explosion. Given that seconds after the sound water started raining down, it wasn't hard to figure out that it was the result of one of the contestants' fishing attempts. Though Gudako could have sworn they forbade dynamite fishing…

Glancing at the main event, Amakusa said: "It seems that Scathach's gained a small lead with her spear-fishing: a lead which the other contestants appear eager to bridge."

With a sigh, Cu (Lancer) said: "Shishou is getting way too into this."

"Peh, you're just jealous because you already lost in the preliminaries," his Caster version said.

Gudako and Amakusa soon bade them goodbye to return to the judging, in particular to verify whether throwing spears at water so hard they explode counts as dynamite fishing.

* * *

The one to eventually win was the complete and utter dark horse (by virtue of no one knowing she was even participating) Paul Bunyan – who near the end of the competition suddenly surfaced from the water, hands cupped. She then proceeded to make it rain fish on everyone by simply holding her hands out over them and opening them.

No one had the heart to tell the proud giantess that fishing barehanded was forbidden to avoid everyone just jumping into the water, so she was immediately declared the grand champion by a large margin.

Before everyone rayshifted back, Mash proudly showed her senpai the salmon she managed to catch with guidance from Touta.

Looking at the two girls during a conversation with Kotarou, Amakusa wondered: "When did he have time to instruct Mash if he was busy with the competition?"

"Perhaps he would've performed even better had he not been instructing her at the same time?" Kotarou suggested.

* * *

And while everyone else was having such a good time, Da Vinci was in the command room, staring at the monitor and readings of the area, breaking her head over how in the world this singularity managed to have both salt-water and sweet-water fish in the same lake.


	10. Chapter 10: Summer At Waku Waku Zabuun

**As the previous chapter was rather short (and since I've got multiple chapters planned for the current Valentine's event and it'll be next year by the time I'll have posted all of them at this rate), here's an extra chapter!**

* * *

Perhaps, Amakusa thought, it had been a bad idea to come here.  
It wasn't that he had anything against a visit to the pool, but after arriving here he'd finally realized the trouble it could bring.  
Not because of the small fit Roman would've once thrown upon learning that the young Gilgamesh had somehow managed to create a minor Singularity to house his Waku Waku Zabuun ("To celebrate summer with a bang!" he'd said), but because there was entirely too much _leering_ going on for his tastes. As usual Blackbeard was the main culprit, but there was a significant other number of Servants that were being equally bad for once.  
Amakusa knew all the female Servants would be able to look after themselves, but the issue was…

"Wah, this place is really huge! I'm definitely visiting the real thing with my family when I can finally get a break!" Amakusa glanced at his bikini-clad Master who happened to be sitting at a table near the edge of the kiddie pool, enjoying a cold drink with Mash while taking a break from swimming. Through an iron will, Amakusa managed to keep his gaze fixed on either her head or her feet, and nothing in-between.  
More than a few times some of the Servants had turned their gazes to their Master – and this wasn't solely the male ones – and while she was old enough to look after herself, there was still that ever-present circle of protective Servants lying in wait nearby to murder _discipline _any of the Servants who actually tried to make a move on her.  
(Lancer Raikou had insisted that they refer to it as discipling, and no one had objected if it meant they could sic her on anyone they viewed as in need of that.)

He moved his gaze soon though, not taking his responsibility of watching over the child Servants swimming lightly. It was a challenging task, considering:  
1\. Nursery Rhyme was still having difficulty adjusting to being in the water, her inherent book instincts making the process of being submerged difficult. It was only with much coaching from her two friends that she even started dipping her feet, and everyone wanted to make sure she had no unpleasant experiences to discourage future attempts. The floaty helped, though.  
2\. Jack couldn't swim. At all. As it turned out, the amalgamation of the spirits of dead children from London had never been taught how to swim, and for some reason she _hadn't_ been granted the knowledge when she was summoned. Despite this she was recklessly eager to play around, and someone had to make sure that she didn't wander off into the deeper parts of the pool again.  
And finally, 3. The young Santa Jeanne Alter Lily lacked a phobia of water and was outfitted with the skill of swimming, but because of this she had gotten a bit overconfident and constantly tried showing off to her friends. So far Amakusa had to discourage her three times from jumping off a high diving board on the other side of the pool into the deep end while hoping her friends would pay attention for long enough to see her. And she kept doing this in spite of the fact that a couple of Servants were using that part of the pool for 'underwater extreme sports', which basically boiled down to them trying to kill each other in the water instead of on land and were using a ball as a projectile weapon to circumvent the pool's 'no fighting' rule. Gilgamesh (Child) was keeping calm for now, but he'd likely start spamming Gate of Babylon the moment one of them managed to cause actual damage to the pool.

"Heya, Amakusa. How's it going?" Amakusa briefly took his gaze off the children to give Gudako a smile and a nod as she sat down next to him, letting her legs dangle into the water like his, before returning to watching the kids. He assumed Gudako was doing her rounds to speak to every Servant and had gotten around to him and the three girls.

"They're enjoying themselves, and I haven't had to interfere too often."

"Glad to hear it! But you've been doing this since we got here, no? Want me to take over for a moment so you can check the rest of this place out?"

"Thank you for the offer, but I like watching over them. Besides, I already promised to play a game with them later, and I'd hate for them to want to start playing only to find I'm not here." The young Santa in particular had insisted, but as the other two had grown rather fond of the Ruler as well due to association with her, they joined in. Amakusa wouldn't have been able to refuse Jeanne Lily alone, and especially not when her friends were asking too.

"Ah, you've got a point there," Gudako nodded. She'd started kicking her legs in the water, causing ripples. Amakusa hastily returned his gaze from them and back to the children.

It was around this point that the young Alter spotted that their guardian had gained a companion and went over to them (no doubt swimming instead of walking across the shallow pool to show off, and it was adorable).

"Ah, Reindeer Master!" The girl stopped in front of them, looking up at her Master with an expectant sparkle in her eyes.

Quick on the uptake, Gudako said with a smile: "Hey, Lily! That was some nice swimming there! Are you sure this is your first time at a pool?" Her excited smile widening into a proud grin, Jeanne Lily puffed out her chest with pride.

"Yup! I've even been teaching Nursery Rhyme and Jack!" Speaking of which, upon noticing where their friend had gone said girls were currently in the process of swimming over themselves. They'd actually started swimming not shortly after Lily, but were both being delayed because of different reasons.  
In Jack's case, calling what she was doing swimming was being generous. A dog paddle had more proper form, but she was so enthusiastic about it that Amakusa couldn't bring himself to suggest that she just walk through the shallow pool.  
In contrast Nursery Rhyme's technique appeared almost flawless… were it not for the fact that she could hardly sink her arms into the water. She was not only wearing goggles and a floaty, but even those inflatable arm guards. She would've gone for a life jacket as well if it hadn't gotten in the way of fitting into the floaty.

It took them a while longer than it should've, but eventually both girls reached the other three.

"Master!"

"Mommy!"

Their greetings were no less enthusiastic than Jeanne Lily's, and Gudako greeted them with at least as much enthusiasm.

"Reindeer Master, we were actually going to play a game! Want to play along?"

"Hm? But I heard you were already going to play with Amakusa though."

"You can also play!" Much like Amakusa, Gudako couldn't bring up much resistance against three pairs of sparkly eyes begging her and gave in within half a minute.

And so it was that in the kiddie pool there started a game of water volleyball (in name only), with on one team Gudako and Amakusa, on the other the three girls. There was initially some discussion over who'd be playing with who as they were uneven in number and adding Amakusa would automatically give his team the advantage, so they eventually decided on an 'adults vs. kids' setup.  
Though to be fair, even if they were kids, the three girls were still Servants, so Gudako would be at a disadvantage anyways. Said disadvantage hadn't actually been that noticeable at first, since out of the five playing Gudako was the most experienced swimmer (apparently grail-granted knowledge that had nothing to do with a Servant's innate skill like Riding lost to an entire school career of weekly swimming classes).  
Of course, then Jack had tried to hit a ball in the other team's 'goal', which Gudako happened to be standing in front of. And Jack hadn't held back with her hit. It could've ended nasty if Amakusa hadn't jumped in front of his Master to hit the ball back, incidentally also scoring a point for their team.  
As it turned out, the amount of trust the girls had in Amakusa's abilities was a bit _too_ strong, as they continued not holding back, expecting the Ruler to jump in if things got risky. Which he quite literally did on more than a few occasions.  
So when the first match was over and the girls were celebrating their victory, Amakusa and Gudako were recovering from the stress and exhaustion (Amakusa had to do a _lot_ of literal jumping in), just happy that there were no injuries.

By the next game Gilgamesh (Child) and Alexander also wanted to join in (the former had enlisted the aid of his Caster version to take care of the Servants rough-housing and damaging his pool, so now he could take a break), and luckily the boys were a lot better at taking consideration of Gudako being a frail human being. And since they were now split into 'boys vs. girls' teams with Amakusa and the two newcomers against Gudako and the three girls, it meant that the two young adults (physically at least, in Amakusa's case) could finally relax without keeping an eye out for (magic-reinforced) inflatable balls threatening to murder someone.  
(That one pass made to Gudako that nearly broke her nose was deemed a fluke.)

It was a fun game, and Amakusa even managed to ignore the sound of "Ah, let me joi-" which sounded mysteriously much like Blackbeard approaching from the edge of the pool behind him, before it was cut off by what sounded strangely much like a strike to the throat.  
He also tried not to pay attention to the somewhat concerned glance Gudako threw at something going on behind him, nor the reflection in the water of a certain Rider being dragged away by shadowy tendrils and multiple hands. He wondered how they were going to string him up if there weren't any trees nearby, but was soon distracted by the game.  
What he found much harder to ignore was the sight of Kiyohime (both versions) and Serenity drooling over Gudako, the former two switching between that and sending the Ruler death glares. Honestly, Amakusa could've sworn that every time he glanced at them the two Kiyohimes switched between these two states. 

Still, they managed to play until closing time without further incident, and all present considered the day a successful break from world-saving.  
As they moved to leave through the entrance, Amakusa managed to distract the trio of girls long enough that they missed the image of Blackbeard hanging by a noose – he wasn't dead as his legs were still kicking, but that arguably made it worse – from the park's entrance. Oddly enough, none of the Gilgameshes had any objections to this even though it was technically defacing their water park.  
Actually, had anyone remembered to cut Blackbeard down from there before destroying the Singularity? Ah well, he'd figure out a way to survive. And if not, Chaldea had stored his Spirit Origin so they could just summon him back.

* * *

**I imagine Amakusa as wearing some kind of light jacket along with swimming trunks, so none of the girls have to see the scars on his body. (It also explains how Gudako managed to keep her eyes on the game and not on his abs.)**

**See you all next month! **


	11. Chapter 11: Meddling Moon Cancer

**Written after completing the CCC Event. BB offering to help out with Gudako's love life just sparked inspiration in me…**

* * *

"_You can even count on me if you end up having any issues in your love life!"_

It had blissfully seemed like such a random exclamation at the time, Gudako reminisced. Just a brief statement thrown in by BB to toot her own horn… which there really was no need for, since she'd already made it clear that she'd stick around Chaldea no matter how much the young Master protested.

Ah… now that she thought about it, BB had even followed it up with: "You can look forward to the help of the cute little devil, Moon Cancer BB!" Initially Gudako hadn't paid attention to the content of BB's words so much as to the fact that she was actually present in Chaldea to speak them in the first place.

But now – as Gudako clung onto Heracles' back as he rushed through Chaldea's hallways, nearly barreling over the ever-unlucky Cu's younger self – she realized just how accurate BB had been, calling herself a 'devil'.  
Honestly, Gudako would've preferred to get Mash or one of the calmer Servants to help in subduing the AI menace, but they would've asked questions. Questions that Gudako really didn't want to answer, since she was already embarrassed enough that BB had figured this out after going through Gudako's web history and noticing she was constantly looking up historic facts and even fictional appearances of a particular Servant…  
No, only a Berserker could be trusted not to babble – and even among them there were certain female exceptions.

Gudako tried not to think of the horrible idea of any of _them_ finding out, and just hoped Heracles got there in time…

* * *

"Hey, Amakusa, right?"  
Shirou Amakusa Tokisada looked up from the book he was reading – a collection of Anderson's fairytales he borrowed from the library, as Jeanne d'Arc Alter Santa Lily had honored Amakusa with the request for a bedtime story, despite the fact she did not need to actually sleep – to see BB approaching him. This was quite the rare event, as usually Rulers were the only class BB _didn't _approach. Whether this was because of her class disadvantage or because she assumed Rulers were too much stick-in-the-muds to rise to her provocations remained to be seen. That she appeared to give most Berserkers the same wide berth didn't help deciding either, as that was what any sane person would do anyways.  
(That she avoided Amakusa in particular might've also had to do with how he'd been the one Gudako chose as the main damage-dealer in teams set up against BB and her evil copy back during the CCC Event.)

Despite the Moon Cancer Servant's extremely lousy reputation, Amakusa still smiled as he greeted her.

"Good afternoon, BB. My name is indeed Amakusa; is there anything I can help you with?" BB made a face. It was quite the incredible one, too. Amakusa wasn't sure if he knew a single word to accurately describe it, but he could tell it was a mix of annoyance, displeasure, and that feeling that lacked a term, yet everyone knew when they met a new person and just _felt _'oh boy, it's _this_ kind of person'. Also, there seemed to be some judging mixed in, though he got the distinct impression this was the one emotion not directed at him.

"Seriously, this goody-two-shoes? And he's conventionally attractive too. Talk about boring taste…" The young(?) man could've sworn he heard BB mutter something underneath her breath, but since he doubted it was meant for his ears he decided to ignore the words and whatever implication they might've held.

As if her previous pause didn't happen, BB's expression immediately cleared into a bright smile. Were it the other Shirou he would've undoubtedly felt a shiver run down his spine, knowing that girls were scariest when they were smiling. But it was only the Shirou who'd never encountered trouble with women during his life, and so he was blissfully ignorant of the sheer amount of evil hidden behind that smile.

"Boy am I glad to see you, Amakusa! How's it been!" Just about over half of Chaldea's Servants would've immediately grown suspicious over BB acting chummy, and the other half either hadn't really met her yet or were not right in the head. Amakusa happened to fit both criteria to fit in the second category – although the latter wasn't immediately apparent if one had not witnessed him when in vicinity of a Grail – in addition to the fact that he was a Saint in every sense of the word except for the 'canonized by the church' part. In fact, if anything he found himself slightly admiring her ability to immediately act like they were old friends, as if her greeting to him _hadn't_ been asking for confirmation that he was indeed who she'd been looking for.

"Just fine, Miss BB," Amakusa said with a friendly smile: for no Saint (whether canonized or not), would fail to be polite and friendly simply because the person they're talking to _clearly_ doesn't like them. As if to prove that point, BB's upper lip briefly twitched, almost like she was having a hard time keeping up her smile.

"Yep, yep, glad to hear it!" Her happy tone definitely sounded more forced now, and Amakusa started to consider that it was entirely possible that she didn't mind his friendliness, but instead how he could appear so calm and content while she was restraining herself from messing with him, likely due to desiring a favor or the like. Though it was equally possible that this was just a set-up for one large prank, but he couldn't say if he himself was the intended victim or someone else.

"Aaanyways, I just got my hand on some reaaalllyyy neat info I thought you might be interested in…"

"Oh, how so?"

"Y'see, it's about our dear, adorable Master." This instantly caught Amakusa's attention, though admittedly, the same could have been said for practically every other Servant in Chaldea had they been present. Their Master was the crux of their existence here after all, and as the local strategist who knew her Servants' capabilities better than anyone, she was the one who decided when a Servant would fight and she gave orders as well. There was simply no possible way for any of them to _not_ be involved when it came to her, frankly. That she was also an incredibly likeable person only further strengthened the bond with her Servants.  
Perhaps, Amakusa mused, this was why BB had chosen this time to approach him. Right after the lunch rush the cafeteria was the calmest area in Chaldea: any Servants that liked to eat would've left by now, along with any staff members (that weren't total shut-ins or workaholics who ate their meals in their workplace, in which case they shouldn't even be taken into consideration in the first place).  
In fact, normally the only people left now were the cafeteria staff, cleaning up after the lunch rush, and perhaps already preparing for dinner.  
It was precisely for this calm that Amakusa had seated himself here, as Shakespeare was being kind of loud in the library and he wanted some peace and quiet to pick out which story he'd read for Jeanne d'Arc Alter Santa Lily.  
(For the record: Amakusa was one of the very few people who still tried to use the entire title, when even the young Santa herself had given up on it after biting her tongue trying to say it all in one breath a few too many times. This was solely because despite acknowledging its ridiculous length, hearing her entire title still made the girl stick her chest out with pride, which was frankly just adorable and more than worth the effort.)

"Oho, that got your attention, huh?" The slightly sinister widening of the AI's grin didn't seem to be a front this time.

"If it's about Master, of course. I hope it's nothing serious?"

"Weeelll, it depends on your point of view. It wouldn't be anything interesting from an objective point of view," meaning that it likely didn't have anything to do with their Master's physical or mental wellbeing, "… But it sure is serious business to some people. Why, I imagine there'd be quite~ the ruckus if this little tidbit of information got out…" By this point it was obvious that BB was out to bully someone, and it sounded increasingly likely that the poor victim of her harassment this time would be Gudako.  
If it was for Gudako's sake, then it was only obvious how Amakusa would react.

"I see. In that case, you should take care not to tell anyone." And with that Amakusa returned to his book.  
He'd heard the Little Mermaid animated movie adaptation was considered a children's classic, but as the original story was fairly dark, he decided not to pick that one.

BB pouted for a moment, but she was confident enough in her ability to push people's buttons that she quickly regained her wicked grin.

"Aw, are you sure you don't want to hear? It's exclusive info, and I've just _got_ to share it with someone! Why, if I can't I fear I might just have to shout it through the intercom to release myself of this anxiety over keeping a secret!" Normally the threat of BB spilling everything certainly seemed like a worse scenario than her just telling one person, but there was no reason to trust her words. While most Servants tended to not lie as a matter of personal pride, this most definitely did not apply to BB. As such, Amakusa had no reason to assume she _wouldn't_ spread the news further after telling him, or that he was even the first person she talked to about this.  
And if she did indeed speak the truth about only wanting to tell him… well, that sounded like even more reason to refuse: he had no idea what kind of info on his Master would interest him in particular, but Amakusa was certain that the person in question would consider this at the very least among the five possible worst-case scenarios. (Almost consistently at the top of this list, regardless of the scenario, was involving Kiyohime. And when it wasn't first place, it'd still be somewhere on the very short list.)

"I see. In that case, might I suggest going to the local church – Chaldea has a very agreeable one – to lighten your heart? There's currently no priest to attend to the confession booth, but I am certain directing your words to the Lord would bring an equal amount of relief." BB didn't even try to hide her annoyed frown this time, while Amakusa kept up his (apocryphal) saintly smile.

"… You're just no fun, are you? This is why I usually don't deal with Rulers…" BB sighed, letting her mask of camaraderie fall completely. They both knew she wasn't going to fool Amakusa like this. Actually, her trying at all was pretty naïve in the first place, but Amakusa simply assumed the AI had yet to hear of his own not-always-equally-stellar reputation.

"My apologies if you feel that way."

"No fun at all…" To Amakusa's surprise, however, BB didn't give up at this. She straightened her slumped shoulders and looked him dead in the eyes, a slightly more serious expression on her face.

"All joking aside, I do think it's in Master's best interest if you at least hear about this."

"… So it is something that would better her? Then why not tell me outright?"

"Weeelll, the person herself definitely doesn't want word to get out, least of all to you or someone like Kiyohime. Me telling that Berserker would just end up in homicide, potentially followed by a murder-suicide. No prize for guessing who the victims would be in that scenario, by the way."

"No need, I can imagine how any situation involving her could escalate like that."

"But anyways: unlike with her, I think the entire 'issue' might be resolved if I just inform you about it, no matter what Master's opinion on that is. After all, humans' decisions aren't all that often in their own best interest." Amakusa could see the logic in her last statement, but…

"… If it's truly in Master's favor that you tell this to me, then why? If it's nothing harmful to her I'd imagine you would prefer to watch from the sidelines."

"Oho, you already know what I'm like, huh? Guest I must've built up quite the reputation already~. But to answer your question: it's because it's annoying me."

"Pardon?"

"You heard me: it's annoying. I like a bit of drama as much as the next gal, but this isn't even that: it's just Master beating around the bush. If she keeps this up, she might retire from Chaldea before it reaches a conclusion!"

"And so you've decided to force her hand in the matter?"

"Exactly! So, are you interested?" The grin reappeared on BB's face, though noticeably less malicious than before. Like this Amakusa really was starting to become convinced she was acting in Gudako's best interest.

"…"

"Oh c'mon, really? All of this, and you're still not taking the bait? Then how about I tell you what this little nugget of info's about, hm?" BB leaned a bit forward, her voice right next to the Ruler's ear as she whispered: "I've got a preeeetty good idea that Master's got a bit of a crush, and on wh-"

"Thank you very much for the offer," Amakusa said as he shuffled over to the other side of the bench, away from a surprised BB, "but I think I've heard enough."

"Wha- seriously?! You can't convince me you aren't interested in hearing more: _everyone_ here would be interested!" Amakusa shot a glance towards the kitchen entrance, worried one of the Servants with sharp hearing inside might hear her exclamation and come listen, which would only bring Gudako more embarrassment. Luckily, no one was in sight. He just hoped there weren't any Assassins hiding in the room and listening in on this in secret.

"While I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious, this is clearly a private matter to our Master. I believe you mean it when you say you're doing this for her wellbeing, but I'm afraid that the decision should be left up to her whether she shares this information with us or not."

"Unbelievable. Even for being from a class of stick-in-the-muds you're a stick-in-the-mud! And here I'd heard you might actually be a fun, troublemaking guy beneath that prim and proper exterior!" Amakusa assumed this meant she'd heard rumors of him plotting to steal a grail after all, although he had no idea how anyone could view that as 'fun'.

The apocryphal saint once more attempted to shoo the Moon Cancer away by focusing on his book, but the slightest hint of doubt had wormed its way past his moral defenses. Certainly, this was their Master's private matter. But out of all Servants, why had BB chosen to talk to _him_ about this?  
If it was merely asking his aid in setting Gudako up with the object of her affections, he was certain there'd be more suitable candidates. Well, except maybe if it came to the Avengers Edmond or Angra: he was rather uniquely on fairly good terms with them both. But if it was either of those two, he still wouldn't help out. In Edmond's case he knew the Avenger would _not_ appreciate outside meddling, especially from one of the two people trying to convert him from his hate-filled path. As for Angra… honestly, Amakusa might get along with him, but he was _not_ a man any self-respecting Servant would leave their Master alone with. Just no way. Even Amakusa wouldn't be able to bless them if they decided to start a relationship.  
So this left only two reasonable options: either the one Gudako had feelings for was _him_ (something which he sincerely doubted: he was still not entirely sure how Semiramis once managed to fall for him, and they'd known each other for longer!), or BB _was_ in fact messing with him, desiring Amakusa to give a particular reaction to the news.  
Amakusa knew very well that who his Master had feelings for was none of his business, and yet… He couldn't help but feel his gut coil up at the idea of her being in a relationship with another. Much like all of the other times this subject came up, actually. Quite frankly, he couldn't imagine it. No matter who he tried to imagine her with – from any Servant to even some faceless staff member – every time he could only conclude that they weren't suited for her. Even imagining her with a black silhouette of a man, happily holding hands, he still couldn't agree with it (though that might've had more to do with how any human-shaped black silhouette looked like Angra).

He was so lost in his pensive thoughts that without realizing it he'd started furrowing his brows, and he failed to notice the growing grin on BB's face as she stepped closer. She'd realized just _why_ the Ruler was so hesitant to hear more about this particular topic, and if she was right about this it'd make everything so much more fun. Less messy than if he didn't feel this way, but more fun.

Once more leaning over his shoulder, she whispered: "Changed your mind yet?" Amakusa turned to look at her with a serious gaze, but the Moon Cancer clearly wasn't intimidated as she straightened with a grin.

"In that case, I'll tell you: silence is consent, after all!" Amakusa mentally noted that that statement wasn't correct, but strangely enough he made no move to stop BB from revealing the identity of Master's crush.

"You see, the person she's been looking into is-"

"There she is! Take her down, Berserker!" An all too familiar voice resounded through the cafeteria (the growling shout that followed couldn't rightly be classified as a _voice_) and considering there was only one Servant in Chaldea Gudako addressed as Berserker (despite being otherwise fluent in English she always pronounced it as ber-ser-car), it wasn't difficult to imagine the situation.  
One moment BB had been standing triumphantly in front of Amakusa, the next she let out a decidedly un-evil-mastermind-like scream (Amakusa could know: he _was_ a member of Chaldea's Four Great Evil Masterminds) as a hulking Heracles rushed up and body slammed her to the ground. It was a small miracle that the cafeteria's floor tiles had held out, and one could only assume Da Vinci had reinforced them after the last time there'd been a food fight between Servants.  
(Emphasis more on 'fight' than 'food', as should really be no surprise considering one was talking about Servants.)

"Good job! Now bring her to my room: I'll decide what to do with her then." For a brief, unguarded moment Amakusa relished in the beauty that was his Master when commanding Servants: while ordinary humans tended to seem arrogant when they did so, she instead appeared more like a seasoned tactician, or a wise leader directing her troops.  
The moment was gone in an instant as Amakusa recollected his composure.

"Good afternoon, Master. I take it BB has been causing trouble for you?" With that the spell of seriousness seemed to have been broken, and as Gudako turned her gaze from Heracles to Amakusa it took on a concerned trait.

"Ah, hi Amakusa. Um… did BB… tell you about something…?" It was unlike her to fidget, yet Amakusa found her behavior more endearing than anything else.

"I don't think so. She'd only just arrived, you see." Gudako let out a deep sigh as she placed a hand on her chest, muttering a 'thank goodness we made it in time' under her breath. Amakusa promptly ignored the accusing look the bound and gagged – who knew Heracles could tie a rope? – BB threw at him as she was slung over the Berserker's shoulder.

"Is there something wrong?"

"No, no, it's just that BB's been snooping around in my room lately, and she happened to come across some info and made assumptions. It'd be really bad if rumors sprung up, so…"

With a nod, Amakusa said: "I understand."

"Thanks for that." There was a brief moment where the two just gave each other light smiles, Amakusa's assuring while Gudako's was thankful (he could've sworn he saw BB rolling her eyes from the corner of his vision, but didn't feel like looking away from Gudako to confirm), before the young Master bid her Servant goodbye and trailed after Heracles, who was already exiting the cafeteria.

"Well, I'll see you around!" She said with a wave, which the Ruler returned.

As she disappeared from his view, Amakusa released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Certainly, it was for the best that the situation ended like this. And yet, why did he not seem able to get rid of this anxiety…?  
Shaking his head, the man returned to his reading, hoping that he'd still be able to concentrate.


	12. Chapter 12: Nerofest with the Kids

After Moriarity's lead on a possible grail didn't work out, Amakusa decided to focus on enjoying the remaining days of Nerofest with Santa Jeanne Alter Lily and some of the other child Servants. Said child Servants enjoyed watching Servants beat each other up for sport, rose petals and medals far more than was probably good for them, but Amakusa was just happy they were enjoying themselves.

He and Jeanne Lily were walking to meet up with the other kids after buying some snacks when Lily spotted Gudako, pointing behind Amakusa as she said: "Ah, Teacher, Master's there!"  
The Ruler turned to greet his Master – only to find himself wondering why a bag of rose petals appeared to have sprouted legs.

It was only when the bag turned in reaction to the shouts that he saw it was actually Gudako carrying the bag, who returned their looks with a smile.

"Hey there! Hope you're having fun watching the fights!"

"Waah, Reindeer-Master, I didn't know you could carry bags that large!"

"Ah, it might look impressive, but since it's all flower petals in the bag it's actually nowhere near as heavy as it looks. Though it _is_ a bit unwieldy to walk around with."

As Gudako said this, a deafening cheer could be heard from the arena where she was coming from, and a strong gust of wind surged through the hall, likely caused by one of the Servants battling inside.  
Perhaps she was imbalanced due to shifting her weight to greet them, perhaps the bag was heavier than she'd insinuated, or maybe the gust was even quite a bit stronger than it seemed and Amakusa and Lily just dealt with it due to being Servants, but almost as if in slow-motion Gudako started leaning forward, bag in front of her.  
And she fell even further, until eventually the bag hit the ground, she hit the bag, and all of the rose petals she'd so painstakingly farmed burst out of the opening like the bag was a confetti cannon in disguise.

Lily let out a delighted shout at the scene of flower petals flying everywhere, while Amakusa hastily made his way towards the Master who'd let out a dismayed cry upon seeing many of the rose petals she'd painstakingly gathered being carried out into the open air by the draft.

* * *

Gudako sighed as she took a seat besides Amakusa in the tribunes.

"Thanks again for helping me out together with everyone else," she said.

"No need, I'm glad we were able to be of help. And I'm sure the kids are overjoyed at you humoring their terms."

Amakusa and Lily had helped gather the scattered petals after Gudako's fall, and they were soon joined and aided by the other child Servants who came to check what was taking so long with the snack-buying.  
In exchange for the help with gathering and eventually exchanging the petals, Gudako readily agreed to the child Servants' demand for her to stop the farming there for the day and join the group in enjoying Nerofest.

As the kids were cheering for their comrade in a Jack + supports vs. Medb + minions fight, the two 'adults' of the group chatted a little.

"I have to say, it's kind of weird for me to be _spectating _Nerofest, as I'm usually taking part in matches in every timeslot to get as much farming done as possible," Gudako admitted before taking a sip from the drink she'd bought for herself.

"I hope that the children's request isn't too much of a problem, then."

"Nah, it's fine: Merlin and the other regulars could use a break for once, and any time I lost can be made up by an extra dose of golden apples on top of the amounts I was already going to eat."

"I see, do try not to push yourself too far in the days still left, then."

Gudako just grinned at him in reply, and as she turned her head to fully face him the Ruler noticed a flower petal stuck in her hair. It must've been one of the rose petals that got blown away earlier, which got entangled in her hair sometime after the fall.

"A moment, Master," he said before leaning closer to remove it.  
After a few seconds he had the petal in his hand, and he finally noticed Gudako had gone stiff. Leaning back, he saw that her face was slightly red as well. He finally realized he'd been _quite_ close to her while he was plucking the petal out of her hair, and started worrying that he might have made her somewhat uncomfortable with his actions.

"Master, I-"

"Oh, it's fine," Gudako cut him off with a laugh and a wave, "I was just a bit surprised, that's all."

"I see, I'm glad it's only that, then."

Amakusa handed her the petal so she could use it for the lottery later, and they sat in silence (or at least _they_ were silent: their surroundings cheering for the climax of the match were anything but).  
Gudako was looking at the fight, but in her mind she was actually more preoccupied with the presence of the man sitting next to her. It wasn't like he'd done anything scandalous, and it was outright tame compared to the moves other Servants regularly made on her, but precisely because of the rarity Gudako couldn't help but get a little flustered when he got closer to her than usual.  
She glanced at Amakusa's hand lying on the bench between them. She was in a losing debate against herself over whether or not to steadily move her hand closer to it.

But before she could make up her mind, he pulled his hand away, standing up. It was only now that Gudako realized the fight was already over, and Jack was returning to their group in triumph. Amakusa was walking over to her together with the others to congratulate the Assassin, and Gudako felt a bit guilty for having forgotten about cheering for her.  
Still, she supposed that the only way to make up for that was joining in with the congratulating: she stood up to join the others, and tried to put what happened earlier out of her mind.


	13. Chapter 13: Amakusa in Shimosa Part 1

**Of course, as this is a Gudako/Amakusa fanfic there's no way I'd be able to ignore Shimosa, where Amakusa actually got an important in-main-plot role!  
(That it's actually an alternate version of him who's the villain makes little difference to my fangirl-ness.) **

**Also, I'm going to split this chapter up into various scenes, so it likely won't make **_**any**_** sense to someone who hasn't played the actual Shimosa chapter. This is because in my idea Amakusa being present would change some things – which will be shown in this fic – but not the entirety of the story.  
I don't want to write down the entire story because not enough would change to merit that, so I'll only show scenes that are significantly changed. It's still pretty long, however. **

**That was all I have to say, so I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"Are you alright, Gudako? Do you need to take a break?" Gudako lifted her gaze from the ground in front of her feet and directed it at Musashi, who'd stopped a little ahead of her. She must've noticed Gudako's steps had slowed a little.

"I-I'm fine," Chaldea's Master managed to say between breaths, "though I think I'll need a few minutes." Musashi nodded in understanding, and put Onui and Tasuke on the ground. The burden on Gudako had lessened a lot since Musashi started carrying them, but given that their last 'break' had been the nerve-wrecking hide-and-seek from the crazed Inshun, she hadn't had much time to recover.  
In truth, she didn't want to take a break. Every moment she wasn't completely focusing on running away was a moment she could think back on what happened in the village, the screams she heard. Still, the frantic beating of her heart and how she gasped for air made it obvious she needed at moment to catch her breath, so she just tried not to think about it too much.

Instead, she turned to Onui and asked: "How long before we reach your grandfather's hermitage?"

"Um, not long now, I promise."

"That's good to hear," Musashi said, stretching her legs a little.

"Anyways, Gudako, how are you feeling? If you've recovered, then-" Musashi cut herself off as her body suddenly tensed, her hand flying to the handle of her sword, prepared to draw it. She had turned all of her attention to a spot hidden by the shadow of a tree somewhere ahead of them, in the direction they'd been heading so far. Had Inshun not only caught up to them, but circled around to cut off their escape route?

"Huh? What's wrong?" Onui asked, worry in her voice as Gudako pulled her protectively behind her. The girl tried to comfort Tasuke in her arms, though she was having a difficult time with how scared she herself was.

"… Is it Inshun?" Gudako dared ask after the rustling up ahead had gotten loud enough for even her to hear.

"… I don't know. I can't think of anyone else out here with the sudden nightfall, but this approach is too obvious. Even if toying with us he wouldn't be this easy to hear."

"Can it be Onui and Tasuke's grandfather, coming to look for them?" Gudako had started to whisper as whoever it was came closer. Going by the rustling, they were about to come out of the shadows.

"No, grandfather wouldn't leave the hermitage in case we came back while he was out."

The group wouldn't have to speculate much longer, as the mysterious person finally stepped into the moonlight.

No matter the time or place, white hair and tanned skin were an unusual sight (except maybe within Chaldea's halls, but that was an exception, really).  
But while Musashi and the kids still viewed this stranger as that – as stranger – to Gudako this odd color combination was more than welcome surprise, as she started towards the man with his hand on a tree before Musashi could stop her.

"Amakusa!" She let out a relieved sigh. Unlike the two Heroic Swordsmen she'd met earlier, despite being familiar, the man in front of her did not have red eyes or a crazed expression, instead regarding her with his usual warm smile and comforting golden gaze.

"Master, it's a relief… to see you're safe."

"Is this… another of your companions?" Musashi asked, slowly releasing the grip on her sword. Gudako seemed to know and trust the man enough to drop her guard in front of him, so she decided to trust the young woman's judgment. Besides, it's not like he was in any state to cause them much trouble even if he did have ill intentions.

From this close Gudako saw it even clearer: Amakusa was shaking, and his breathing was heavy. He had his hand on the tree to support himself.

"Amakusa? What's wrong?"

But before the Ruler could say much more he collapsed, and Gudako just barely managed to catch him before he hit the ground.

"Whoa, what happened?!"

"I-Is that mister alright?"

In truth, Gudako was just as surprised as them, if not more. The relief she'd felt upon knowing one of her Servants was had immediately turned into confusion and almost panic, but she knew she couldn't afford to freak out here: Inshun was still chasing them, and there was no way of telling when he'd catch up. They _had _to drop Onui and Tasuke off with their grandfather, and then try to find a way to defeat the Heroic Swordmasters.  
And so…

"Musashi, I'm sorry, but can you carry him? I'll take over Onui and Tasuke again."

"What? Um, I guess it makes sense to want to keep running, but… will that guy be alright?"

"I…" She didn't have the time to hesitate or second-guess, Gudako knew she didn't, "yes, he'll be fine. He seems to be low on magical energy, and I can replenish that later. But for now we need to keep moving first and foremost!"

"Alright, got it!" Musashi took Amakusa from Gudako, slumping over her back with an 'upsy-daisy'.

"Can you manage?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine: this guy's pretty light." Gudako nodded, and moved to lift Onui and Tasuke up again. There was not a moment left to waste.

* * *

"… But first, you need to tell me about yourself and your clan. That's the condition for letting you inside," Onui and Tasuke's far-too-young grandfather said as he stood between them and the house.

"That includes your unconscious friend over there, too," he said, gesturing to the unconscious Amakusa still slung over Musashi's back.

"… I wish I could," Musashi said. It wasn't obvious, but from right next to her Gudako could see her tense. The 'grandfather' didn't look like he was about to attack them, so why…?

"I'm so sorry. It looks like I made a bad call," Musashi had now placed one hand on her swords, and this time the masculine youth noticed as well, frowning.

The next moment went fast, almost too fast for Gudako to follow. One moment Musashi was standing there, facing the man. The next, she'd spun around with such speed that Amakusa was thrown off her back, hitting the ground besides Gudako. She'd drawn her swords with the same motion, and used them to block Inshun – no, the Lancer of Purgatorio – his surprise attack.  
He immediately turned his next attack on the supposedly-old man, but luckily he could defend himself.

What followed was a gruesome battle between Musashi (supported by Gudako) against Lancer of Purgatorio.  
Still, at least the blacksmith was nice enough to move Amakusa's unconscious body out of the line of fire while the rest were occupied with fighting.

* * *

Gudako glanced up when she heard Musashi's voice from the other room.  
After a moment of listening, she figured she and Onui were talking about Muramasa – or at least the stories of him as a legendary blacksmith. Normally she'd have happily joined in on the conversation, but…

Gudako lowered her gaze to the man who was lying on a futon in front of her. Amakusa had briefly woken up this morning, but after she'd reassured him they were safe, he'd eaten a bit and gone back to sleep. It seemed that the problem keeping him weak like this laid in a lack of mana, so resting was the best remedy for him.

Gudako heard Muramasa's voice speak up. She really did want to join the conversation with the others, but she wouldn't feel right about leaving Amakusa all alone. Besides, at least this way she could supply him with some more prana, which could help him recover that much sooner. Even if all she could do was hold his hand likes this…

"How is he doing?" Gudako nearly jumped when she heard the young voice pipe up right next to her, but she managed to restrain it to just a flinch.

"Oh, Onui, sorry, I didn't hear you there," she laughed it off. Glancing through the open door behind the girl, Gudako noticed Muramasa and Musashi weren't in the room eating breakfast anymore.

Noticing her gaze, Onui said: "Grandfather and Ms. Samurai went to talk in the forge."

"Ah, I see," Gudako nodded, figuring they were probably there talking about the Heroic Swordmasters. Well, they could fill her in later. Amakusa would need to hear the explanation again anyways.

"To answer your question from earlier," Gudako said, "he's doing a lot better." Shuffling a bit closer, Onui nodded.

"Yeah, he's looking a lot better! And it's because you've been holding his hand?" Gudako nodded. While she initially doubted that Onui understood her brief explanation on prana and a Master Servant bond, it seems she might have grasped more of it than expected.

"Wow, he must really like you, to feel so much stronger because you're here!"

"Wh-what?!"

… On second thought, it seems she didn't get the explanation. At all.

It took at least ten minutes before Gudako had frantically managed to convince the young girl that what she was doing wasn't romantic in nature, and that she and Amakusa were not dating – where Onui had gotten that idea, Gudako didn't know. She wouldn't have been surprised if it turned out Musashi had been spreading rumors about it behind her back.

"Oh, alright then," Onui finally said.

"So, you get it? That Amakusa and I aren't in that kind of relationship?"

"Yep!" Gudako let out a relieved sigh…

"But you still like him, right?"

… And almost choked when she gasped midway through it.

"Wha- why do you think I…?!"

"Well, you've been looking at his face this entire time, not moving from his side! That sounds exactly like some of the romance stories a girl a bit older than me from the village likes to tell!"

"Erm, well, that's…" Gudako felt her face grow hot, and she was certain Onui was perceptive enough – despite her young age – to notice.  
Finally, she caved and realized it'd be easier to just admit the truth, if only to Onui (and technically Tasuke, though given that he had been sleeping for most of the conversation Gudako doubted he was all that interested in the subject). She glanced at Amakusa, confirming he was still out cold, and then at the open door, confirming Muramasa and Musashi were still away talking.

"Alright then," she whispered as she leaned closer to Onui, "I'll admit: I like him."

Onui let out a small squeal of happiness, apparently getting a head-start on liking love-talk, before whispering back: "I knew it!"

Then, after a moment: "… Wait, so why aren't you together yet?"

"Yeesh, way to start asking the tough questions…" Gudako sighed.

"… It's because what I feel for him – it's completely one-sided, you see?"

"Oh, that's too bad. Still, you're really pretty and nice, so I'm sure he'll change his mind!"

"Haha, it'd be nice if it ever got to that point…"

"Yes! I'll do my best to support you!"

Before Gudako could reply she heard the sound of the others returning from the forge, and hastily whispered to Onui: "Be sure to keep this conversation a secret, alright?"

With a nod and a serious look that was kind of silly on the face of a child, Onui nodded.

* * *

"Are you alright? We don't need to take a break?"

"Thank you for the concern, Master," Amakusa said with his usual smile, "but I assure you: I am not forcing myself, and can keep on walking just fine. As long as I stay out of battle, I won't be needing any breaks on the way to Toke." Gudako new this, of course. He'd already told her this before they left Muramasa's hermitage, but she couldn't help but fret over him a little. Still, she supposed she was being too overprotective now, and so forced herself to back off a little.

"Alright then, if you say so." It wasn't like he was _not_ doing a good job staying out of the fighting so far: every time the sky had darkened and a group of evil spirits had barred their path, he'd done as he promised and hung back, helping to keep an eye on Onui and Tasuke.

"Are you sure you'll be alright though, going to such a large town? The Shimabara Rebellion even came up in a conversation between gramps and me, so I'm sure they'll be talking about it a bunch over there," Musashi added.

"As I said before, I'll be fine: while I certainly have complicated feelings about this era, that doesn't involve any resentment towards the people living here, regardless of what they think of what transpired. But thank you for your concern anyways."

"Still, to be able to forgive something like that… I don't think I'd have it in me. You must be magnanimous enough to make even Buddha proud!"

Gudako silently agreed with Musashi. Amakusa had donned his final ascension outfit to fit in with the era more, but had to remove the cross symbols to avoid starting a fight. She was sure that must have hurt, but he hadn't complained for even a moment.

"Mister Samurai?" Onui spoke up, and Gudako was thankful for the break from the rather awkward subject.  
The girl had assumed Amakusa was a samurai due to his clothing and the sword at his hip, and the Ruler had made no attempt to correct her.

"Yes?" He smiled at her warmly.

As Onui and Amakusa talked, Gudako ended up walking next to Musashi.

"I'll admit," the young samurai started, "that after everything I'd heard about the Shimabara Rebellion and its leader, I didn't expect him to be so… Calm." Both women regarded the Ruler and child talking amicably. Even though Amakusa had only really woken up this morning, it was clear the young girl was already quite fond of him.

"By the way, what do you think of Miss Gudako?"

"Well, she's my Master, so of course I respect her. She's a good person and a good leader, so I'm glad to be working with her."

"Um, but what do you think of her as a person?"

"… How did they get on that subject, actually?" Gudako wondered aloud.

"I think Onui just started asking about you, all of a sudden. Do you have any idea why?" After a moment of thinking it over, the only thing Gudako could come up with was her conversation with Onui about her one-sided feelings for Amakusa. Was the girl trying to set them up with each other? While Gudako found the idea adorable, she did not have particularly high hopes of her chances.

"Yeah, I can think of a reason why," she answered, "It's nothing bad, so let's just leave her be."

"Huh. You know, you're trying to play it cool, but don't think I don't see how closely you're paying attention to the conversation."

Gudako kept silent, and after a moment Musashi got a glint in her eye, likely suspecting what was going on. The cat-like grin forming on her face cemented Gudako's suspicions, and with a deep sigh the Master just hoped that Musashi wouldn't tease her about this too terribly.

* * *

"Upsy-daisy," Musashi said as she lifted Kotarou onto her back.

"… Huh, I'm getting a strong sense of deja-vu here, all of a sudden," she mumbled as she took the first few steps out of the alley, followed closely by Gudako, Amakusa and Onui and Tasuke. Gudako wondered where Musashi had even learned a _French_ term, but supposed Musashi had travelled around enough to have picked it up somewhere.

"So, where to? I don't think we're going to have much luck finding a random inn willing to take us in like this…" After a brief discussion, they all agreed to head to Otama's place, as she was really the only person in this town they knew by name and would be able to reach.

"Let's start with asking that group over there," Gudako started as she pointed to a group of men exiting a shop, "if they've heard of where she might work."

"Alrighty, let's go!"

It didn't take them long to find a good lead, as Otama was apparently a minor celebrity in town – at least amongst the men, that is. Luckily her place wasn't too far off, so their walk wouldn't have to take too long.  
Gudako just hoped things wouldn't somehow escalate into a fight again, like with Otama and _princess_ Kiyohime. She'd subconsciously let out a small sigh, and her ever-perceptive Ruler Servant had of course noticed right away.

"Is something the matter, Master?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Gudako waved it off, "just mentally preparing myself for meeting Otama again. You know, in case we get dragged into another commotion like the one earlier." She also hoped Onui would stay calm, as earlier she'd been acting kind of weird, trying to get between Kiyohime and Otama when they were essentially making moves on the young Master.

"Yes, I must admit that it was a surprising sight, seeing a scene so familiar to Chaldea's halls here in the streets of a Japanese town from so long ago."

"It threw me for a loop, that's for certain," Gudako smiled.

"In that case," she continued with a small laugh, "you might want to watch out: don't want to get chased around by a homicidal Kiyohime again, right?" Honestly, while this Kiyohime was certainly as attached to Gudako as ever, the Master didn't get the impression the girl was as bad about it as Chaldea's Kiyohime, so the chance of that happening was pretty small.  
Amakusa certainly knew that as well, but while he tried to cover it up with a chuckle, Gudako could swear she saw him sweat at the thought for a moment.

* * *

"… And finally, it seems that two of the members of the group are 'Servants'," Danzo continued her report on the woman calling herself Shinmen Musashi and her companions.

"One of these appears to be a ninja like myself, and the second…"

The way she trailed of did not go by unnoticed, and the Caster of Limbo urged her to continue: "And? What of the other Heroic Spirit?"

"Well," Danzo started, a bit uncertain how to explain this, "the second appears to be… Well, you, Lord-Sorcerer." There was a moment of silence as those present processed her words. There was no way Danzo would have mistaken someone who merely looked like the Lord-Sorcerer for him, and since they were talking of Heroic Spirits…

"I see," the Lord-Sorcerer said, "so an alternate Amakusa-Shirou-Tokisada managed to become a Heroic Spirit, and ended up being summoned by this Master of Chaldea."

Danzo nodded, as that appeared to be the most logical explanation.

"Well, this is quite the turn of events. What would you have us do, O Lord-Sorcerer?" Caster of Limbo addressed his 'master'.

"Pay him no more attention than you would the other members of his group," he said, his tone flat.

"While he might be another version of me, without this Jesuit Sorcery he will not prove too great a threat."

Despite his dismissive words and tone, it was all Danzo could do not to flinch. While as a ninja she'd been trained in the art of keeping her emotions and thoughts to herself, even she found it difficult to try not to have seen the expression of sheer rage that flitted across the Lord-Sorcerer's countenance, betraying just how much hearing of this other version of himself had angered him.

* * *

"Well, maybe Kotarou can't join us in battle quite yet, but how about you, Amakusa? Has your Spirit Origin-thingy stabilized enough?" Musashi asked as their group stuck together in the crowd, trying to figure out why there were so many people gathering in the streets.

"Yes, I believe it has. While I wasn't in good enough shape yesterday to be of much more help against Archer of Inferno, I assure you that I can now face any threats."

"Wow, that sure sounds reassuring when you put it like that! I've got to say, from what I've seen of you Heroic Spirits so far, it sounds great to have one on our side!"

"Yes, I'm happy Mister Samurai is feeling better, too," Onui piped in.

"Master," Kotarou appeared from within the crowd, rejoining the group, "the procession of samurai the townspeople mentioned is just up ahead. We'll be able to see them pass by soon."

"Alright, thanks, Kotarou!"

Indeed, as the ninja said, the procession of samurai soon appeared. And coming up from the rear was a man who clearly stood out from all the rest, and not only because he was riding on a horse.  
The man, Yagyu Tajima-no-Kami, held his speech, and despite himself, Amakusa tensed at the mention of Shimabara. As he'd feared, the samurai here had fought in that battle. From the corner of his eye he could see his Master give him a concerned look, and it was just what he needed to ground himself back into reality and wrench his thoughts away from unpleasant memories.  
He'd recovered enough that when Kotarou mentioned Tajima-no-Kami's role in the Shimabara rebellion, he answered his friend's worried glance with a calm smile, and even managed to add some of the impressions he'd heard of his old comrades, before the final battle.

As Musashi spoke of her encounter with him, Amakusa noticed the man in question looking at their little group. For a moment, he saw the man's eyes widen, and then he started approaching them.  
It seemed to the Ruler like he was looking at him when he looked so surprised, perhaps he recognized him from the Shimabara Rebellion?  
But as the man called out to Musashi, Amakusa wondered if perhaps he'd been mistaken after all.

* * *

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… Um, Kotarou?"

"Yes?"

"You're, um… kind of in my personal space?" Gudako could hardly be blamed for thinking this, as Kotarou could almost be sitting on her lap for how close he was.

As befitting for a ninja, he respectfully backed up a bit with an apology, though he was still sitting rather close.

"I have to keep you safe," he justified it, but Gudako wasn't convinced just yet.

"But Amakusa's also here guarding me, and he can do it just fine from a distance!" Indeed, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada was also present in the room, looking at the scene from his futon a respectable distance away with an amused smile.

"No need to drag me into this," he chuckled.

"No no no, I need your help convincing him I need my space!" Gudako recalled how some of the castle's maids had shown concern for a young woman having to share a room with two men, but she'd waved those concerns off. She was somewhat regretting not rooming with Kiyohime and Musashi now, even if Kotarou had made a solid point when saying that the enemy's two most likely targets sleeping in the same room was risky.

Kotarou opened his mouth to argue his point again, and then she knew it was going to be a long night.

* * *

**I'd originally intended to make one chapter of this, but as I got to writing it turned out pretty long. As such, I split it up into two parts, the second of which will be out next month. See you all then! **


	14. Chapter 14: Amakusa in Shimosa Part 2

**Sorry for being so late everyone (especially considering this is the continuation of another chapter), but I decided to prioritize my exams over writing. Then my computer broke, I got busy the moment it was fixed, etc… But I'm back, I've got some chapters ready to post for the following months, and I'm working on the chapters after that, as well! So rest assured, this impromptu hiatus is over, and this fic is back to monthly updates. **

**Anyways, here, as promised, is the second part of Amakusa in Shimosa! It's more serious than the previous part, but I hope you all enjoy reading this still!**

* * *

"Master!" Amakusa almost grit his teeth in frustration as he slid down the slope, leaving a trail of dust flying up in his wake. He could hear Kotarou yelling the same somewhere from the bushes to his left, and Musashi yelling her name somewhere to his right. But despite their calls, Chaldea's Master gave no answer.  
How was it possible for her to have rolled far enough down not to hear them still? Or perhaps she could hear them, but couldn't answer for some reason. The worst-case scenario was that she'd gotten hurt on her way down, or even got intercepted by one of their enemies.

The one thing they could be certain of was that she was alive, since both Amakusa and Kotarou were still receiving magical energy from her. That was some comfort, at least.

Finally, Kotarou found her, after he and Danzo stumbled upon a cave from which the smell of smoke from a campfire came.  
The state the Master was in when they found her, however… Well, to say they were all horrified to find her with a hole in a stomach would be an understatement.

As he looked at his bandaged and unconscious Master, Amakusa had to admit to himself – while he was certain not to show it on his face – that he hadn't felt like murdering someone this badly since that time with the homunculus, in a world so different from this one.  
He could only hope that he managed to keep his cool when the time finally came to confront the culprits behind this.

* * *

The Missionary. Amakusa had encountered him before together with everyone else, and of course the man's resemblance – both in appearance, personality and now even fighting style – to the Edmond Dantes of Chaldea was immediately noticeable. But now more than ever, Amakusa suspected him to be the actual person, instead of a strangely similar existence belonging to Shimosa like the Kiyohime and Otama from here.  
If someone were to ask him why he suspected this, it's because when the Missionary mentioned a 'small connection to a man who looks exactly like him', he'd for a moment glanced right at Amakusa.

But more importantly than the Missionary's identity was that of the Sorcerer behind all this death and terror. And given the glimpse he'd gotten and the mention of a 'fellow Christian', Amakusa suddenly got the feeling like he could make a pretty good guess at that person's identity.

* * *

'Awkward' or 'unpleasant' did not even begin to describe the situation Ruler Amakusa Shirou Tokisada found himself in.

Gudako, Musashi and he had rushed up the stairs to catch up to Kotarou and Muramasa after they'd gone ahead to stop the evil mastermind behind all of this, but the moment they'd arrived at the highest floor, it had been as if someone called a time out.  
Here he was, standing eye in eye with a man who looked exactly like him, were it not for the red sclera and deranged expression on his face. The Ruler couldn't even claim to be surprised, as he'd suspected as much ever since running into the Missionary again.

It was his counterpart that broke the silence first. Hatred, rage, madness… the 'other' Amakusa expressed all this and more as he said he could never forgive even himself for siding with humanity.

"And more than anything else," the man who had started to resemble an Avenger more than the human being he'd once been continued, "How dare you. Here you stand, fighting to protect this world that's accepted the tragedy and hell of Shimabara. You may be another victim of that hell, but your betrayal in protecting the legacy of the Tokugawa makes you no better than them."

"…"

'This' Amakusa knew that despite their similarities, the 'other' him was reading into it too much: they were both Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, they had both experienced the same hell at Shimada… but that was where any similarities between them ended. He'd died and the 'other' continued on, and perhaps there were even more differences in their pasts. And those differences in experience had made them into different people.

… Well, perhaps there was one more similarity between them: an incredible stubbornness that makes them both cling to their beliefs. If nothing else, Amakusa's certain they're similar in this regard. And that's why he knows, no matter what he says or does, that he won't convince this alternate self to change his ways. Similarly, this alternate Amakusa will never be able to convince him to betray humanity like he has.  
As such, the Heroic Spirit Amakusa concludes that all that's left to do is to fight the mastermind behind all the pain and suffering in this Shimosa with all he has.

* * *

A town ablaze that can be seen through the smoke in front of him, corpses of women, children, families, his _friends_ strewn about, air so hot it felt like it scorched his throat every time he took a breath. The moment he took in his surroundings, Amakusa recognized the scene that still haunted his nightmares, even as a Servant. To think that he'd experience this scene in the flesh once more…  
Amakusa recognized it instantly, his mind wandering to a worse time. He could hear the others despite not seeing them, could hear them try to figure out what was going on… But their voices, those of the 'present' didn't manage to reach through the fog of memories that clouded his mind.

No, the voice that eventually reached him was one he was both intimately familiar with, yet paradoxically had never heard before today.

"Indeed, this is Shimabara!" The Sorcerer announced. Amakusa couldn't tell whether he was reacting to the others' words, or if he knew Amakusa recognized it. No, there could never be any question that Amakusa recognized this scenery playing out in front of his eyes: the two of them had seen this hell for themselves, and the two of them would never be able to forget it.

"… But surely you already knew that, did you not, Amakusa Shirou Tokisada?" The Sorcerer's voice was calmer than any of those present had heard it so far.

"Though we may hail from different worlds, as Amakusa Shirou Tokisada, you must surely have seen a hell like this before. And yet, you still dare to look at the Tokugawa, at humanity, and desire to save them…!? Ridiculous! So tell me, Servant of correct human history: looking at what crimes have been committed here once again, can you truly say you do not wish to take revenge on the culprits…?!"

… Servant Amakusa already knew the answer to that. Indeed, the answer he'd decided on would never change, that was his one certainty. But still, when asked this by his alternate self, he couldn't help but gaze at this scene from his memories before answering.  
Were those faint screams he could hear in the distance part of this Reality Marble, or simply his memories overlapping with the present?

"… Of course," he eventually replied, "After all, I've already forgiven them."

"…!"

"No matter how many times I experience this hell, that answer will never change." The silence that followed his declaration was so deafening, even the roar of the blaze all around them seemed to disappear. His companions were silent – perhaps out of respect for him, perhaps they were still looking at this scenery with muted horror – and his alternate self was…

"I see." The man who claimed to be beyond humans despite being one spoke in a tone of voice so cold, it could make one shiver even when surrounded by this scorching, practically poisonous air.

"Then you are a heartless fool, and deserve to die with the rest of the world." Amakusa wondered what the Sorcerer had expected: that he'd change his mind, and join his battle against his companions? Or perhaps he wanted the only person who could truly understand how he felt to validate his views and methods, someone who would sympathize before he truly ended everything.  
But the Sorcerer would find neither in the Ruler Servant, and after realizing this, he spoke as if he'd never let this quiet bitterness leak out.

"Hahaha, oh, but how confused must all of your companions be…! Yes, you second-rate heroic spirits and humans, do you realize where you are?! This domain is the very heart of my fury! It does not suffer any living person to survive…!"

… Ah, what did the Sorcerer say after that? Amakusa could only stare out at the fire, blood and corpses in a daze as the words washed over him.  
It was not until the sound of a hammer hitting metal that he realized a change in the situation was occurring, and he was snapped out of the fog that had taken hold of his mind.

* * *

How many times had it been now, that Gudako looked up to check on his condition?  
Amakusa looked fine, and he acted like it, too: after the initial chaos of the castle burning down and the monsters dying off had calmed down, he'd volunteered to help with getting started on cleaning the area up, so people could then start rebuilding. The few times Gudako could look up from her task of treating the wounded, he looked fine.

… Yet, somehow, she couldn't shake the feeling that he was just pretending. That underneath that warm smile of his she liked so much, he was thinking only of the encounter with his alternate self, and what they'd all been shown inside of his reality marble.

Kotarou had agreed with her when she'd expressed her concern to him. But what could they do? Between trying to help the townspeople get back on their feet and their preparations for leaving, they couldn't find a good moment to take him aside and talk it out. To start with, the Ruler would likely refuse to take a break to talk while there was still so much he could help with before leaving.

… In the end, all Gudako could do was swear to herself and Kotarou that she'd have a proper conversation with him once they were back in Chaldea.

And so, amidst heartfelt goodbyes and concerns over the Ruler's mental health, the Master and two Servants left this Shimosa, returning to Chaldea safely.

But, perhaps as expected, the dark cloud that hung over Amakusa was not dismissed with merely returning home.

* * *

Amakusa watched as the muscles in his arm tensed and relaxed with the clenching and unclenching of his fist. Even in the safety of his own room, he couldn't bring himself to relax: the image of his alternate self's reality marble was impossible to remove from his thoughts.  
The sight had been exactly like his nightmares, yet somehow worse. He didn't know if the others had noticed, but he was certain that inside of that hell he'd heard echoes of screams from voices all too familiar to his ears. If he made an effort, he was sure he could imagine the faces and names to match those voices, even though they'd all died so very, very long ago.  
He'd forgiven those who were involved in quelling the Shimabara Rebellion, that was no lie. But that didn't mean the memory didn't continue to haunt him, most prevalently in his sleep.

He clenched his teeth and dug his nails into the palm of his hand, in a futile attempt to distract his mind from the horrors of his memory.  
Amakusa couldn't even close his eyes without imagining he was already back there, the smell of fresh blood and burnt flesh hanging in the air, the pain from the wounds he'd been dealt stinging almost as badly as the heat of the flames. He barely managed to retain his calm by focusing on the reconstruction efforts in Shimosa, but now that he was alone, he could no longer ward the dark thoughts off.

… He'd forgiven those responsible.  
Yet, he still understood why his alternate self felt so much rage, enough to commit such heinous acts. He understood it frightfully well, what it was that had driven him to such despair.  
Had he himself not died when he did, perhaps he too would've…

Amakusa gasped in surprise when he heard knocking on the door to his room, only now realizing he'd been holding his breath.

"Amakusa," A familiar voice spoke from behind the closed door, "can I come in?"

"Of course, Master. The door's unlocked."

With the opening of the door he could see his master's orange hair and comforting smile.  
He tried to meet her warm gaze with a smile of his own, but given that a hint of sadness crept into her features moments later, he clearly didn't succeed. Still, she kept smiling, and walked over to him.

Patting the spot besides him on the bed, she asked: "Can I?"

"Of course."

With his consent Gudako sat down, the distance between them perhaps a little smaller than appropriate, but Amakusa found himself unable to care at that moment.  
He had to turn his gaze to his hands lying on his lap to avoid looking at her face, lest he overlap that same face with the scenes of his nightmares and…

There was a sad silence between them, as even the ever-cheerful Master of Chaldea couldn't think of the right words to comfort him.  
Amakusa appreciated her coming to check on him, but right now Gudako's presence was doing him more harm than good: her precious existence by his side just reminded all the more of what he had lost, and it was all he could do not to imagine the possibility that one day, she could reside amongst them.

He heard her take a breath to say something, but after a moment she let the air out in the form of a small sigh, having apparently changed her mind.  
Perhaps Amakusa should ask her to leave? It would be harsh after she came over here to cheer him up, but the guilt would be preferable to what he was feeling at the moment.

But just before he could ask, Gudako finally spoke up: "Just to check, you don't have any issues with physical contact, right?"

Almost on reflex he answered: "No, I don't." But by the time his confused thoughts had gotten him turned to look at Gudako, her arms were already wrapped around his neck, pulling him down into a hug.

Amakusa was stunned, only able to note that the heat of her body was slowly warming him up.

"I'm sorry that I can't think of anything to say to comfort you," Gudako started, her breath tickling his neck as she spoke, "but personally I've always preferred a hug when I need support."

After a moment of hesitation Amakusa wrapped his arms around her back to return the gesture, and then he found himself more clinging onto her than hugging, his face buried in her shoulder.

"Would you mind… staying like this, for a while?"

"I wouldn't have done this if I did: take all the time you need." Amakusa imagined Gudako must have had a gentle if sad smile on her face as she said so.

"… Thank you," he said, and closed his eyes as he relaxed into her embrace.  
Amakusa couldn't quite recall the last time he spent time in the arms of a loved one – he was certain that at the very least his mother must have done something similar at one point in his life, though he couldn't remember – so he wasn't sure if this warmth spreading through him was normal when being hugged, or if he felt like this because the other party was Gudako.  
Either way he was grateful to her, for with her holding him close like this – she was holding onto him almost as tightly as he was holding onto her – he could no longer feel the phantom pain that had coursed through him earlier.

As he was drifting off Amakusa's erratic thoughts finally settled down, as at that moment all he could think of was listening to his Master's gentle breathing and feeling the steady rise and fall of her chest against his.

* * *

**Alright, and with that this chapter's finally over! It… ended on a far more pensive note than I originally anticipated, but there was no way seeing the Shimabara hell **_**wouldn't **_**bring back painful memories for Amakusa. Due to the generally darker tone of this chapter, I even cut out some of the more comedic scenes I'd had in mind and expanded on some shorter ones, which clashed too much with the overall seriousness of this chapter. Well, if nothing else this has led to a rather tender ending in my opinion, so I'm glad it's there. **

**And again, sorry about how long you all needed to wait for this chapter: I hope that it didn't disappoint! **


	15. Chapter 15: A Change in Attitude

**And here there's a small follow-up chapter for Amakusa in Shimosa, posted on the same day to apologize for how long it took me to post the second part. I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

"Grrrrrrr…"

Robin Hood looked up from his cup of coffee (with a shot of brandy mixed in) to try and figure out exactly what hostile animal was currently making those growling noises in the middle of the filled cafeteria.  
As he laid eyes upon an angry Kiyohime glowering at someone from behind a table, he realized an angry animal would've been preferable.

"She's been glaring like that ever since lunch started," Elizabeth helpfully chimed in as she sat down at the same table with a plate of food in her hand.

"At who…?" Robin dared ask, and Elizabeth pointed at a table somewhere behind him. The Archer turned around to see the table Master was sitting at, together with Mash and Amakusa. Considering the two flowers always spent time together, it wasn't hard to guess that Kiyohime was angry with the odd one out amongst the three.

"Hm? Well, it's true that he doesn't usually sit with them, but I don't think Amakusa is really doing anything wrong," Bedivere noted as he passed by.

"No," Kiyohime cut in, "he is acting far too chummy with Master. He brazenly invited himself to sit at her table, and is far too close to her!"

"What's so brazen about him politely asking if he can sit at the same table when Master happily accepted…?" (Saber) Elizabeth mumbled, but Robin hastily shushed her so Kiyohime wouldn't hear.

"My apologies, but might I ask why you all seem so tense around Lady Kiyohime?" Robin looked up to see Danzo and Kotarou, the former who'd asked the question. They must've noticed everyone starting to crowd around here and come over to see what was going on.

"Right, given you've only been here for a short while, you wouldn't know. Simply put, Kiyohime is very… _protective_ of Master. Violently protective. Violently and jealously protective. Violently protective, jealous and quick to jump to conclusions."

"I… I think I understand what you mean," Danzo said as she glanced at Kiyohime, still growling as she glared daggers at the red-clad Ruler.

"Well, while she is definitely exaggerating," Elizabeth piped up, "It is true that Amakusa's been spending a lot of time with Master lately, even more than before."

"Yeah, it started right around the time that the incident with Master sleeping – Shimosa was the name, I think? – ended."

"So, Kotarou: you were there, do you have any idea what this is about?"

The Assassin shook his head as he said: "No, I don't. Though Amakusa did receive quite a shock there, so perhaps that is the explanation for his behavior being off?" It was a pretty weak excuse, but Kotarou couldn't think of an elaborate one on such short notice, so it'd have to do. At the very least, the others seemed to buy that he didn't know more.  
In truth, he actually had a pretty good idea of what had caused the Master and Servant to grow closer right after that event, but he didn't want to ruin their privacy by going into detail.

The others didn't get much of a chance to doubt his words in the first place, as everyone present nearly jumped when Kiyohime's growling got louder and more aggressive. Elizabeth was about to ask if Kiyohime was sure she wasn't a dog instead of a snake, but Robin thankfully clamped a hand in front of her mouth. The last thing they needed was her aggravating the Berserker more, especially now that her swimsuit variant had joined in on the growling and glaring.

Danzo, for her part, was too busy being amazed at a Servant having a changed Spirit Origin simply for something as simple as wearing a swimsuit to really worry about the situation.

"Hey, what happened to make her angrier?" Blackbeard – who'd somehow joined their group of gawkers before anyone noticed – asked as they all looked between the two Kiyohimes and Master's table.

"Amakusa's hand accidentally brushed against Master's while he passed her the salt, I think that's it."

It was an innocuous gesture, but it made Kiyohime get _this_ close to setting the entire cafeteria on fire in rage.

* * *

"Is something wrong, Master?" Gudako turned her gaze from the group of Servants looking at two raging Kiyohimes to Amakusa and Mash, who were looking at her.

"No, I was just thinking about something, no problem at all," she laughed, a bit forced. Still, the two of them didn't seem to notice, and she was honestly wondering how they weren't picking up any of that killing intent. Mash she could've understood, but what was preoccupying Amakusa so much that he didn't notice? If this kept up, it'd be a repeat of the Raging Kiyohime incident, back when she chased him all around Chaldea!

In fact, the young Master was so worried about the Berserker (and her swimsuit Lancer variant)'s behavior that she completely and utterly failed to notice what had even set her off in the first place.

And so the tense (for some) mealtime continued.  
Or at least it continued up until BB walked by, took one glance at the situation, and then proceeded to escalate it to the point that it was no longer mealtime, but a battlefield.  
After all that, Gudako started seriously considering the benefits of just eating her meals inside of her room in the future.

* * *

**And that's the final end of Amakusa in Shimosa. The next chapter will be a general one, but that's for next month. **

**Until then, everyone! **


	16. Chapter 16: Playing the Villain

"Master, is something wrong? You seem lost in thought," Amakusa remarked, pausing his cleaning for a moment to look at Gudako, who was staring into space.

His voice snapped the Master out of her daze, and looking at him she gave a reassuring smiles as she said: "I'm fine, I was just thinking about something. With Christmas coming closer every day, I suppose I just felt a bit nostalgic, and started reminiscing about last year."

"Oh? It's unlike you to look back on things like that."

"Yeah, it is. It's been about a year since King Gilgamesh (Caster) arrived at Chaldea, right?"

"Indeed," the Ruler confirmed, though he was unsure what had brought his Master to this particular train of thought.

As if Gudako noticed his confusion, she explained: "I was thinking back on what happened with Jeanne Lily last year, and how you kinda went all-out pretending to be the mysterious villain-pretending-to-be-an-ally Santa Island Mask. So, that got me thinking about back when Gilgamesh (Caster) had just joined, and how he had some other Servants causing up a stir, you among them…"

"Ah, I think I can see where this is going."

"I think Angra called it… Operation Eradicate Chaldea?"

"I stand by my earlier opinion about the name not being exactly artful."

Gudako bit back a comment about a pun like Onriedo not being much better, knowing it'd be too low a blow given how badly the re-living of his personal nightmare back in Shimosa had affected the Ruler.

Instead, she simply continued: "It seems like you really enjoy playing the villain, huh?"

"I must admit I enjoy getting caught up in such an act, but in general I simply find that it's a role that suits me."

"You know, it's saying things like that – among with the times you were literally the villain of an incident – that got you put on the list of Chaldea's evil masterminds in the first place."

The only reply was Amakusa's usual laugh.  
To Gudako's surprise, however, Amakusa didn't simply return to work like he normally would've, but instead resumed the conversation after a moment of silence.

"Admittedly, if I do get asked to play the villain again sometime in the future, I actually have an idea in mind."

"Really? Wow, I didn't realize so much thought goes into these things."

"I assure you, they usually aren't planned out beforehand. But my alternate self in Shimosa ended up giving me some inspiration for this one."

Gudako was even more surprised to hear Amakusa suddenly bring up Shimosa himself: they hadn't really talked much about it after she ended up comforting him after they got back.  
Still, if he'd somewhat recovered from his experiences there, she could only consider that a good thing.

"Alright then, what has this inspiration led to?"

"I think that for my next act, it might be an interesting idea to kidnap a princess. Not an actual princess of course, but someone of equal or even more value to Chaldea." As he said this, Amakusa looked Gudako in the eyes with an intensity she didn't expect, and the young woman got the impression she was supposed to know who he was talking about.  
What's more, the way he was looking at her… It was a bit unnerving, if she had to be honest. His gaze wasn't cruel or calculating, but it was so intense that it was making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and her heart skip a beat.  
Gudako had stared down more than a few demon gods in the process of restoring humanity from its incineration alone, yet something about Amakusa at that moment made her break their gaze as she forced herself to think on his words for a change of pace.

Amakusa said someone of great importance to Chaldea, and the only person Gudako could think of was Da Vinci. But she didn't fit the typical image of a princess in the slightest.  
Maybe Mash? No… while she was definitely important to both Chaldea and Gudako herself, she didn't give off the 'kidnapped princess' vibe either, even if she was no longer able to access her Servant powers.

Amakusa chuckled as he recognized Gudako's confusion for what it was, saying: "You can't figure out who I'm talking about, can you? That's fine: it's like you not to realize it."

"And," he added with a glint of amusement in his golden eyes that accompanied his usual smile, "Don't worry too much about it: you'll be the first to know when I ever decide to enact this plan."

"That comment only makes me worry more, especially the 'when' part!"

But Gudako wouldn't get any more information out of the amused Ruler. Ah well, at least the nervousness he'd made her feel had dissipated.

* * *

**For anyone wondering, I imagine that after his talk with Gudako after Shimosa, Amakusa had some realizations about his feelings for her, resulting in his current, more proactive attitude. Thus, writing this chapter was pretty fun. **

**Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did, and see you all next time! **


End file.
